| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Foreign Mil Sales smell-test Update: IOMAX's 'Archangel' aircraft and L-3 contract award |
| 2017-03-02 |
| [Breitbart] WASHINGTON D.C. -- A giant defense firm may be passing off another company’s equipment as its own, which could have played a role in a potentially corrupt U.S. arms sale to Kenya that the State Department approved on the Obama administration’s last day in office. Breitbart News has obtained photos of L-3 Technologies using marketing materials at a recent international defense conference featuring a small plane produced by IOMAX USA, Inc., a small, disabled-veteran owned company based in North Carolina. Look Geoffrey, that's our bloody Archangel! Quick Sid, get a few close ups. The photos show an L-3 banner and poster at their booth at the 2017 International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in February featuring IOMAX’s "Archangel" aircraft -- an armed crop-duster-like aircraft used by U.S. partner militaries for border patrol, surveillance, and close air support. L-3 passing off the aircraft as its own could potentially explain how it got exclusive approval for a lucrative $418 million contract to produce 14 such planes for the Kenya Defense Forces, despite never having produced the planes before and IOMAX’s ability to produce them for much cheaper. Yes, we cut a few corners, but aren't our contract graphics people simply amazing. Breitbart News provided a photo of the banner to L-3 and requested clarification. "L-3 has declined to respond to your inquiry," a spokeswoman said. Banner? What Banner ? How L-3 was able to get the contract has come under congressional investigation. How about a Justice Department 'look see ?' The State Department approved and privately notified Congress on January 19 about the sale, which would fulfill Kenya’s request to buy the planes and other services for missions against terrorist group al-Shabaab. An IOMAX representative said the company was never given the chance to compete for the contract and did not hear about it until after it was publicly announced on January 23. Didn't learn of the contract until after the award (as planned). Then we contacted Steve Bannon. The rest is history. Under the contract, Kenya would spend $364.4 million on the aircraft and $53.6 million on other services. The IOMAX representative said it could produce the planes for $237 million -- about $127.4 million less than L-3. We here in Kenya don't mind paying the extra $54 million dollars to L-3. We are confident it will go for a good cause. A group of five North Carolina GOP lawmakers, led by Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), sent a letter last week requesting a non-partisan government investigation into the matter. "Our offices have been recently made aware of potential irregularities in the Foreign Military Sales acquisition process. Specifically, the existence of sole-source requests and a possible lack of due diligence by Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) Security Assistance Officers. It appears that more congressional oversight is warranted," said the Feb. 23 letter to the Government Accountability Office. "It is our understanding that this contract may have been awarded to L-3 based on false assumptions made by DSCA that L-3 manufactures a weaponized manned ISR platform that fulfills the requirement submitted by the Government of Kenya to DSCA," it added. Lawmakers suspect, although they do not have evidence, that Air Force acquisition officials, working with the State Department on the contract, unfairly steered it to L-3. No demo, no flight testing, no bidding competition, simply sign here. A State Department official, in an email obtained by Breitbart News, said Kenya had specifically requested L-3 produce the aircraft after "extensive market research," but acknowledged not possessing the research. Similarly, an Air Force official in an email obtained by Breitbart News acknowledged not being provided the research. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 First thought Bf-109. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2017-03-02 16:20 |
| #2 The L-3 is most likely based on one of these two aircraft based on the 'banner' picture in the above link. Air Tractor AT-802 Ayres Thrush |
| Posted by: Seeking cure for ignorance 2017-03-02 15:28 |
| #1 L-3 Optional equipment list. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2017-03-02 08:24 |