The competition for a lucrative aerial refueling tanker contract with the U.S. Air Force may not get underway until September, a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters today.
The contest again will pit the Boeing Co. against duo Northrop Grumman and EADS. The Pentagon called off the last contest when government auditors found numerous flaws in how the Air Force ran the contest.
The Pentagon previously had indicated the tanker competition would kick off in mid-summer. But the spokesman told reporters that it could be August or September.
“And frankly, this may go into the fall because we want to make darn certain we get it right. And so everybody is double and triple checking the proposed way ahead to make sure that it is bullet proof,” the spokesman added.
This is the Air Force’s third attempt to replace its aging fleet of KC-135 tankers. In the last round, Boeing offered a tanker based off its commercial 767, built here in Everett. Northrop and EADS proposed a tanker based off of Airbus’ A330. The two say they will assemble their KC-30 tanker in Mobile, Ala., if they win.
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