Published: Monday, February 23, 2009
Split tanker deal between Boeing and Northrop Grumman?
EVERETT -- It's nearly tanker time again.
The talk over restarting the controversial aerial refueling tanker contest has heated up in recent weeks, with the chairman of an influential U.S. House committee paying visits to the sites where competitors would build the aircraft. But the congressman and some observers say the U.S. Air Force will remain years away from replacing its aging tanker fleet unless the Pentagon splits the multibillion-dollar deal between rivals the Boeing Co. and duo Northrop Grumman and EADS.
As chairman of a defense appropriations subcommittee, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., holds the purse strings on tanker funding. While his co-chairman Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., advocates giving the entire contract to Boeing, which would build tankers here, Murtha told reporters last week that splitting the contract might be the speediest choice.
"We've been trying to get tankers out for the last eight or nine years," Murtha said.
But two rounds of tanker acquisition have been mired by protests. Murtha sees a protest as a likely stumbling block in a sole-source award, which is why he favors splitting the award.
Analyst Richard Aboulafia, with the Teal Group, recently outlined a similar argument to the Puget Sound aerospace community at a conference in Lynnwood.
"It's ugly. It's stupid. But it may be the way to go," Aboulafia said.
Otherwise, the government may keep postponing an award forever. Or, Aboulafia said, the Democrats prevail in pushing a "Buy America" platform, preventing the Air Force from picking the Northrop-EADS tanker, which is based on Toulouse, France-based Airbus' A330 jet. The analyst warned against a "Buy America" agenda.
"The biggest danger is if nations turn inward and stop engaging in trade," Aboulafia said.
But Dicks is adamantly against buying a tanker with European ties while Americans struggle to find work.
"I don't see how we could go build them in France … when we've got workers here," Dicks said.
Northrop and EADS have said the initial tankers would be built in France with later aircraft assembled in Mobile, Ala.
Alabama politicians recently suggested that the Obama administration should be careful about reasons for excluding Northrop and EADS from the contract. U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., told the American Spectator, a conservative monthly magazine, that Obama can't promise to renew partnerships in Europe while refusing to buy products with European connections.
The congressmen will have to make their cases with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has said publicly that he's in favor of a sole-source tanker contract. Gates intends to restart the competition this spring. Murtha plans to line up initial tanker funding soon.
A decision on the air tanker contract hinges on whether the Air Force decides to rewrite the request for proposal it used last year, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said last week. If the Air Force re-issues the essentially same proposal from last year, then a decision could be reached fairly quickly, Murray said. If a new one is written up, it will be 2010 before a contract is awarded.
Murray met with Air Force leadership recently and said they understand the process must be "open and transparent and very clear" to bidders what's desired in the plane and how submissions will be scored.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
The talk over restarting the controversial aerial refueling tanker contest has heated up in recent weeks, with the chairman of an influential U.S. House committee paying visits to the sites where competitors would build the aircraft. But the congressman and some observers say the U.S. Air Force will remain years away from replacing its aging tanker fleet unless the Pentagon splits the multibillion-dollar deal between rivals the Boeing Co. and duo Northrop Grumman and EADS.
As chairman of a defense appropriations subcommittee, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., holds the purse strings on tanker funding. While his co-chairman Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., advocates giving the entire contract to Boeing, which would build tankers here, Murtha told reporters last week that splitting the contract might be the speediest choice.
"We've been trying to get tankers out for the last eight or nine years," Murtha said.
But two rounds of tanker acquisition have been mired by protests. Murtha sees a protest as a likely stumbling block in a sole-source award, which is why he favors splitting the award.
Analyst Richard Aboulafia, with the Teal Group, recently outlined a similar argument to the Puget Sound aerospace community at a conference in Lynnwood.
"It's ugly. It's stupid. But it may be the way to go," Aboulafia said.
Otherwise, the government may keep postponing an award forever. Or, Aboulafia said, the Democrats prevail in pushing a "Buy America" platform, preventing the Air Force from picking the Northrop-EADS tanker, which is based on Toulouse, France-based Airbus' A330 jet. The analyst warned against a "Buy America" agenda.
"The biggest danger is if nations turn inward and stop engaging in trade," Aboulafia said.
But Dicks is adamantly against buying a tanker with European ties while Americans struggle to find work.
"I don't see how we could go build them in France … when we've got workers here," Dicks said.
Northrop and EADS have said the initial tankers would be built in France with later aircraft assembled in Mobile, Ala.
Alabama politicians recently suggested that the Obama administration should be careful about reasons for excluding Northrop and EADS from the contract. U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., told the American Spectator, a conservative monthly magazine, that Obama can't promise to renew partnerships in Europe while refusing to buy products with European connections.
The congressmen will have to make their cases with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has said publicly that he's in favor of a sole-source tanker contract. Gates intends to restart the competition this spring. Murtha plans to line up initial tanker funding soon.
A decision on the air tanker contract hinges on whether the Air Force decides to rewrite the request for proposal it used last year, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said last week. If the Air Force re-issues the essentially same proposal from last year, then a decision could be reached fairly quickly, Murray said. If a new one is written up, it will be 2010 before a contract is awarded.
Murray met with Air Force leadership recently and said they understand the process must be "open and transparent and very clear" to bidders what's desired in the plane and how submissions will be scored.
Reporter Michelle Dunlop: 425-339-3454 or mdunlop@heraldnet.com.
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