September 10, 2008

Tanker Competition Pushed to Next Administration

Press Release: The Defense Department today cancelled the competition between the Boeing Company and the EADS/Northrop Grumman Corp. for the production of new air refueling tankers. 

When the initial selection of EADS/Northrop Grumman was invalidated by a Government Accountability Office review in June, the Pentagon announced an aggressive schedule for a new competition.  In late August Boeing contended that the altered specifications of the revised competition required it to submit a proposal based on larger aircraft.  Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates pushed the decision to the next administration today by cancelling the competition in a move that will give Boeing workers a fairer chance to build an aircraft that meets the Pentagon’s revised requirements.  

Following is the statement made by Rep. Norm Dicks regarding the Defense Secretary’s decision:  

“The announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the Pentagon was abandoning the competition to begin replacing the Air Force’s aging fleet of KC-135 refueling tankers recognizes that this decision will necessarily be made by the next administration.  

“When the GAO issued its stinging rebuke of the Air Force’s badly-flawed selection process, the Department should have prudently conducted a thorough review of the actual air refueling requirements and should have based the new competition on those bona fide requirements.  Instead it chose to rush through a new selection process with an exceedingly-tight timeline and a revised specification calling for a tanker that was larger than in the original competition.  

“Today’s announcement was an admission that a new competition for this new aircraft simply could not have been concluded before the end of this administration.   But we still need new tankers to replace the 50-year old KC-135s that give U.S. aircraft the ‘legs’ to reach trouble spots around the world, and it is my hope that a new procurement process can begin early in the next administration.  It would also be my intention to assure that a new selection process correctly identifies the real Air Force requirements and also takes into consideration factors such as the subsidies that are provided to Airbus aircraft by European governments, unfairly taking jobs away from U.S. aerospace workers.”


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