Not saying nothing.......
http://aviationweek.com/defense/week...oct-10-16-2019
Collins Aerospace Wins U.S. Air Force Ejection Seat Contest
Collins Aerospace has been selected to deliver up to 3,018 ACES 5 ejection seats over the next decade to replace the escape systems in five different combat aircraft fleets, the U.S. Air Force announced Oct. 2. The selection for the Next-Generation Ejection Seat (NGES) program eliminates UK-based ejection seat specialist Martin-Baker for a potential competitive bid to the ACES 5 and consolidates Collins as the Air Force’s ejection seat supplier for the A-10,
F-15, F-16,
F-22 and B-1, which all use the ACES 2 ejection seat.
Boeing also separately selected the ACES 5 for the Air Force’s new T-7A trainer. Martin-Baker will continue supplying US16 ejection seats for the Air Force’s
F-35A fleet.
The Air Force decided to nix a possible competition after determining it would take Martin-Baker another 26 months to develop and qualify an ejection seat that meets a set of newly adopted standards codified under MIL-HDBK-516C airworthiness guidelines, the Air Force says in a 12-page justification and approval document for the sole-source procurement decision.......
Collins got a head start on the new Air Force guidelines with the Safety and Sustainability Improvement Program (SSIP), which upgraded the B-2A ACES 2 ejection seats with new components. That experience meant that Collins would be required to perform only eight sled tests to qualify the ACES 5 ejection seat, the Air Force document says. The Martin-Baker alternative would require 14 additional sled tests staged over a 14-month period, along with a 12-month period for development work, the Air Force says.
The Air Force requirements also focused on minimizing sustainment costs. An ejection seat includes a cartridge- or propellant-actuated device, which requires significant infrastructure to maintain. Judging that it would cost an extra $1.5 billion over the 40-year life of an ejection seat to sustain a different device, the Air Force required the NGES supplier to use the same cartridge- or propellant-based systems used by the existing ACES 2 seat. That specification offered a clear advantage to Collins.