Boeing: Doth thou protest too much?
Published 10:53 am Thursday, March 13, 2008
Boeing is up to its eyeballs in protests this week.
The company is no stranger to the protest process through the Government Accountability Office, even though it filed its first protest in decades this week. Government contracts awarded to Boeing have been the subject of several disputes in recent years, including Boeing’s win of a search-and-rescue helicopter contract.
Two days after Boeing lodged its complaint over losing a lucrative deal supplying the U.S. Air Force with aerial refueling tankers, the company’s win of a $1.2 billion tanker maintenance contract was disputed – again – by the loser of the contest.
Alabama Aircraft, formerly Pemco Aviation Group, filed on Wednesday a second protest with the GAO, reports Reuters.
The Air Force originally picked Boeing for a maintenance contract of its KC-135 Stratotankers. Yep, these are the same KC-135 tankers that Boeing just lost the opportunity to replace.
The GAO sided with Alabama/Pemco in the original protest. But the Air Force again chose Boeing for the maintenance deal after reviewing the source selection materials as instructed by the GAO to do.
The point of bringing up this convoluted protest mess? Boeing has a long road ahead in its quest to overturn the Air Force’s pick of Northrop Grumman-EADS’ tanker over its KC-767. Even if the GAO sides with Boeing, the Air Force could still pick Northrop-EADS in a review or rebid.
