CSIS: Air Force Competition Down

A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies has found a "significant decline" in competition for services within the Air Force since 2011.

According to the document, even as the other services have seen stable competition rates, the Air Force has seen its own rate drop dramatically.

"Within the Air Force, just 56 percent of its services contract obligations were awarded after effective competition in 2008," the report says. "That rate declined gradually over the next few years, to 52 percent in 2011, and that share has declined sharply since, to 41 percent in 2014. Meanwhile, the rates of effective competition for Army services (between 69 percent and 73 percent) and Navy services (between 60 percent and 62 percent) have been largely stable over the same period."

CSIS found that data reclassification and shifts in what the Air Force is buying could not fully explain the decline.

"The data show that, for particular types of services that make up significant portions of the Air Force’s services contracting portfolio, the Air Force achieves lower rates of effective competition than does DOD overall for similar services," the report adds.

"CSIS urges policymakers inside the Air Force, within the broader DoD, and in Congress to determine if the low and declining rates of effective competition for Air Force services are the result of factors outside of the Air Force’s control (such as industrial base limitations), or are the result of services tradecraft that can be improved," the report concludes.