"Tony Williams" wrote in message

What makes you say that the original decision in favour of the BK 27
wasn't 'in open competition'? It was clear that when Boeing decided in
favour of the BK 27 in 1999, the GAU-12/U WAS in the frame, because GD
withdrew it from the JSF competition in 2000, just before L-M selected
the BK 27 as well (which looks very much like a case of 'resign before
you're sacked').

Tony, that almost never happens in US contracting. If you_do_withdraw an
already submitted proposal it will cost you a lot of goodwill with the
customer. Actually, companies commit to submitting a proposal when the RFP
comes out and reneging of that commitment is not done lightly. I don't know
why the GAU-12/U proposal was withdrawn but it was_not_to prevent the
embarassment of losing.