The US Air Force on Friday said it was extending an investigation into an embarrassing mistake that prompted it to cancel a contract, valued at up to $1 billion, to sell Brazilian light attack planes to the Afghan government. Air Force General Donald Hoffman, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, granted investigators more time to look into the issue, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy. She said a decision was now expected in coming weeks.
The Air Force had no immediate comment on why it decided to extend the investigation, which is being conducted by Air Force legal officials along with some representatives of the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, Frank Kendall. The problem began in January, when privately held US defence contractor Sierra Nevada Corp and Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA beat out Hawker Beechcraft to win an order for 20 light attack planes. The US Air Force was procuring the planes behalf of the Afghanistan government.
That contract was quickly challenged by Hawker. The incident has generated headlines in Brazil, where government officials were caught off guard by the US military's cancellation of the plane order, and have said it would not be helpful to bilateral defence relations. The issue may come up when Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff visits Washington next week. While preparing for the Hawker lawsuit, the Air Force discovered that its decision had been inadequately documented, prompting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to scrap the contract, which had an initial value of $355 million to Sierra Nevada and its subcontractor Embraer.
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