UPDATED: Boeing to protest tanker decision Tuesday

Published 3:11 pm Monday, March 10, 2008

UPDATED: The Boeing Co. says it will file a formal protest over the tanker decision Tuesday.

“Our team has taken a very close look at the tanker decision and found serious flaws in the process that we believe warrant appeal,” said Jim McNerney, Boeing chief executive, in a press release. “This is an extraordinary step rarely taken by our company, and one we take very seriously.”

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If the Boeing Co. is going to protest the Pentagon’s decision to pass the company over for a $35 billion tanker contest, it will do so on Tuesday.

“If we’re going to file a protest, we have to do it by Wednesday; if we do it, we’ll likely do it Tuesday,” said Boeing’s Mark McGraw, manager of tanker programs, according to this report.

“We do have some key meetings this afternoon to hopefully come to a decision,” he said.

More than a week has passed since the Air Force announced it selected the tanker offered by Northrop Grumman and EADS over Boeing’s KC-767. But the debate remains alive and well.

This morning, Northrop sent out a press statement to “correct” inaccuracies being batted around about its KC-30 tanker. This is the second such release the company has sent in less than a week.

Northrop-EADS backer Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., defended the duo’s win in a piece published in Financial Times.

“As members of Congress, we are concerned about US jobs. But any assertion that this award “outsources” jobs to France is simply false. With a new assembly site in Mobile, Alabama, this contract will bring tens of thousands of jobs into the US,” wrote Shelby.

Meanwhile, Boeing supporters targeted presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for his role in scuttling Boeing’s previous win of a similar tanker contract.

Boeing’s shares were down $1.40 in early morning trading.

Besides the tanker bid, Boeing is getting attention for another potential delay on its 787 Dreamliner program.

Over the weekend, All Nippon Airways told The Sydney Morning Herald that it had demanded an updated schedule for the 787 from Boeing by the end of the month. Boeing originally promised to deliver the first Dreamliner to the Japanese carrier this May.

”The longer we wait, the more servicing of the 767s we will need to do,” said Osamu Shinobe, an executive vice-president at All Nippon. ”Some of them may become unfit for flying.”