HooRU And the President gave them NGAD
Nope, that’s not how it works. No president “gives” anyone anything in this process. In my 26½ years in the Air Force I was involved with the management of several contracted programs, so I’ll explain how it works.
First, it usually starts with a Request For Information (RFI) to industry. Various industry entities respond with what is technically feasible, recommendations on procurement, and other information. The procuring agency, the Air Force in this case, takes that information into consideration along with its own internal requirements and drafts a Request For Proposals (RFP).
Next up, Offerors respond to the RFP with proposals to meet the requirement. These proposals are not compared to each other, but rather they are individually scored against various Source Selection criteria in the RFP, including but not limited to: Management, Technical, Schedule, Cost, and Past Performance. The scoring is done by a Source Selection Team (SST) made up of experts in their own areas.
Once the scoring is complete, the SST will make a recommendation to the Source Selection Authority (SSA), who will make the final decision. The SSA is usually a Colonel or Flag Officer (General) depending upon the scope and size of the procurement. For this procurement it is most certainly a General.
For the F-47, there were three (3) potential Offerors: Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. Northrop Grumman dropped out of the bidding process, leaving the other two Offerors to compete. If there had only been one bidder left, it is likely that the Air Force would have cancelled the process, made some changes, and started again with a fresh RFP, as the Service, and DoD in general, prefers to have competition rather than a sole source award.
Once the decision is made, it is briefed up the chain of command. For a procurement of this scope and magnitude it is not unusual for a SECDEF or President to announce the winner.
