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Reuters
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Published: Fri, July 11, 2008 - 7:13 am
Last Updated: Thu, July 31, 2008 - 12:59 am
WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. military will try but it will not guarantee it can select a winner in the new $40 billion Air Force aerial tanker contest by the end of the year, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer said on Thursday.John Young told a House of Representatives Armed Services Committee subcommittee hearing the "air is charged" around the revitalized competition, and suggested that a number of scenarios must fall into place seamlessly to avert the possibility of another disputed selection.
"If we limit the change and industry is cooperative and Congress allows us the opportunity to proceed, we may be able to do it in six months," Young said.
But Young stressed that he could not guarantee a time frame, and acknowledged that another protest of the award was possible because "it's hard to see a situation" where the companies involved would accept losing.
Young was before Congress as the latest senior military official -- in a seven-year saga -- to oversee selection of a company to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of KC-135 refueling tankers.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reopened the bidding after Boeing Co successfully protested the Air Force decision in February to award the deal to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. Northrop's partner is EADS, the parent of Boeing's chief commercial aircraft rival, Europe's Airbus.
Auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed the appeal and found in June the Air Force made several errors in evaluating the bids. Young said his team would offer an amended proposal.
A handful of lawmakers from states allied with Boeing or Northrop tried to pin down Young on the new proposal. Some believe changes in aircraft size or life cycle could sway the decision in one direction or the other.
But Young would not yield on possible changes. He said the overarching specifications of the tanker would remain the same and the military would treat each bidder equally
He said the Pentagon would abide by the GAO recommendations and do a better job this time of spelling out to Boeing and Northrop what criteria is most important. He said the companies have wide latitude to make major changes on their own and still fall within the requirements.
Committee members met with Young behind closed doors after the hearing.
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Yea, That really caught my eye and left me wondering why are we going through this again. Boeing swings a lot of weight in the states and a lot of other countries and they give away a lot of military classified information to these other countries by outsourceing to them. I didn’t realize Boeing is the seller of the minute man missle until the other day. That would just be Ducky, to fire our missles if need be and China and Russia knows what part to disable and how to.