US reopens KC-X Tanker Bid, Boeing concerned over new conditions
U.S. Defense Department’s decided to reopen the KC-X aerial refueling tanker competition following Boeings’s protest of the original $35 billion contract award to Northrop-Grumman/EADS/Airbus consortium. The announcement comes after the Government Accountability Office last month found improper practices related to the contract.
Replacing the Air Force as the “source selection authority” is John J. Young Jr., undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. He is tasked with appointing an advisory committee to oversee the selection of a bidder to supply the modified commercial aircraft fleet that will phase out the current KC-135 tankers, which are 47 years old, on average.
The Defense Department has ordered Northrop-Grumman to stop work on its contract, and a modified request for proposal could be issued as early as this month. The tanker request will remain in “open competition” until a new contract is awarded, which Gates said he expects will happen before year’s end.
After reviewing the GAO’s decision, Michael B. Donley, acting secretary of the Air Force, said he concluded that the Air Force’s acquisition system is not “fatally flawed.”
“However, the GAO did sustain the protest in eight areas, and this has been sufficient to cast doubt on the Air Force’s management of the overall process,” he said.
While re-bidding the contract will add months to the process, Donley said, it offers “the most direct route to complete the competition, achieve a final decision and field the tanker that represent the best value for the warfighter and the taxpayer.”
Donley’s predecessor, Michael W. Wynne, and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley resigned in the wake of a report detailing the accidental shipment of four non-nuclear missile trigger components rather than the intended helicopter batteries to Taiwan in August 2006. The erroneous delivery came on the heels of another Air Force incident in which a B-52 bomber flew across the United States carrying six armed nuclear cruise missiles.
Boeing today released a statement mentioning “However, we remain concerned that a renewed Request for Proposals (RFP) may include changes that significantly alter the selection criteria as set forth in the original solicitation.”
Northrop Grumman Corporation statement says “We are reviewing the decision to ensure the re-competition will provide both companies a fair opportunity to present the strengths of their proposals.”