Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Bloomberg.com
April 21, 2008 By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
A delay in the Air Force's new $35 billion aerial refueling tanker program “would be a real shame,” denying war fighters an improvement in capability, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“We're long past due in terms of getting on with this program,” Gates told an Air Force audience today during a question-and-answer period after a speech at the Air University at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama.
The 179-plane program was awarded Feb. 29 to Northrop Grumman Corp. and its partner, European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. The losing bidder, Boeing Co., protested the decision March 11 to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which said it will render a decision by mid-June.
The loss of the program would end the hold that Chicago-based Boeing has had on the Air Force tanker business since 1956. Boeing's entry in this contest was based on its 767 commercial plane, while Northrop's was based on the larger A330 made by EADS unit Airbus SAS. Toulouse, France-based Airbus is the world's biggest commercial planemaker, followed by Boeing.
Boeing's congressional supporters in Kansas and Washington State, where most of the tanker would be assembled, have criticized the Air Force for not factoring into its decision the number of U.S. jobs that would be created by a Boeing selection over a Northrop Grumman-EADS pick.
They have also criticized the Air Force for failing to factor any purported “subsidies” EADS may have received that affected its cost proposal.
Gates today said the law governing the Pentagon's decision “is very explicit.
“It allows the Defense Department in an acquisition like this to consider only technology, capability and cost. All other considerations are explicitly prohibited by law,” he said.
“Based on everything I've seen, this was a fair process, but we will wait and see what the GAO report says,” Gates said. “I think that some things, unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix, at least on Capitol Hill, and that's a concern.”
April 21, 2008 By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
A delay in the Air Force's new $35 billion aerial refueling tanker program “would be a real shame,” denying war fighters an improvement in capability, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
“We're long past due in terms of getting on with this program,” Gates told an Air Force audience today during a question-and-answer period after a speech at the Air University at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama.
The 179-plane program was awarded Feb. 29 to Northrop Grumman Corp. and its partner, European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. The losing bidder, Boeing Co., protested the decision March 11 to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which said it will render a decision by mid-June.
The loss of the program would end the hold that Chicago-based Boeing has had on the Air Force tanker business since 1956. Boeing's entry in this contest was based on its 767 commercial plane, while Northrop's was based on the larger A330 made by EADS unit Airbus SAS. Toulouse, France-based Airbus is the world's biggest commercial planemaker, followed by Boeing.
Boeing's congressional supporters in Kansas and Washington State, where most of the tanker would be assembled, have criticized the Air Force for not factoring into its decision the number of U.S. jobs that would be created by a Boeing selection over a Northrop Grumman-EADS pick.
They have also criticized the Air Force for failing to factor any purported “subsidies” EADS may have received that affected its cost proposal.
Gates today said the law governing the Pentagon's decision “is very explicit.
“It allows the Defense Department in an acquisition like this to consider only technology, capability and cost. All other considerations are explicitly prohibited by law,” he said.
“Based on everything I've seen, this was a fair process, but we will wait and see what the GAO report says,” Gates said. “I think that some things, unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix, at least on Capitol Hill, and that's a concern.”