Air Force: Tanker contest will be ‘crystal clear’

Published 3:05 pm Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Air Force’s new needs for a tanker will be “crystal clear” when its draft requirements for the $35 billion contract are made public tomorrow.

“This is not a rerun of the last competition,” said William Lynn, Deputy Secretary of Defense, on Thursday.

Defense officials spent Thursday giving briefings about how the aerial refueling tanker competition will be conducted. The Air Force had to call off its last competition after facing criticism that it was unclear about what it was looking for in a tanker and how it would judge defense contractors’ bids.

“We haven’t favored anyone” in the draft requirements, Lynn told journalists Thursday afternoon.

Competitors the Boeing Co. and its rival duo Northrop Grumman and EADS will have to wait until Friday morning to see whether they agree with the Pentagon’s assessment.

Although Boeing supporters in Congress say they too think the Air Force has been much clearer about its needs and evaluation process, they already say the Pentagon left one important matter out.

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said the Air Force has not taken into account a recent World Trade Organization ruling against Airbus. EADS is the parent company of Airbus and plans to use an Airbus A330 as the basis for its tanker offering with Northrop Grumman.

“It totally fails to take into consideration the massive illegal subsidies that one of the bidders (EADS) received,” he said.

Deputy Defense Secretary Lynn, however, said the WTO’s ruling is an interim one and that Airbus has a similar complaint pending against Boeing.

“You need to pursue that process to a conclusion,” he said. “That process is going to take several years.”

In the meantime, the Air Force has added a clause to its contest that “holds the taxpayer harmless” when the WTO decision has been finalized, he said.

The Air Force will issue its final requirements perhaps by the end of the year and announce a winner by summer 2010.