UPDATED: Air Force personnel are being accused of intentionally delaying the delivery of a bid for a $35 billion tanker contest in a protest filed Monday by U.S. Aerospace, Inc.
“(C)ertain Air Force personnel may have intentionally delayed the messenger from delivering our proposal, in order to create a pretext for refusing to consider it because they have political issues with our Eastern European supplier, thus violating the requirement that the program be a fair and equal competition, open to all qualified bidders,” U.S. Aerospace wrote in a regulatory filing Wednesday.
U.S. Aerospace partnered with the Ukraine’s Antonov to challenge both the Boeing Co. and EADS for the contract supplying the U.S. Air Force with aerial refueling tankers.
In an SEC filing Wednesday, U.S. Aerospace said it had filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office on Monday. The duo’s proposal missed the Air Force’s 2 p.m. EST, July 9, deadline by five minutes.
But the pair claim their representative arrived “well before” 1:30 p.m. but was initally denied entry and then given bad directions by Air Force personnel, leading to the “late” bid submission.
U.S. Aerospace also questioned several aspects of the Air Force’s conduct: denying its request for a 60-day extension after granting a previous request from EADS; leaking information to the press; intentionally delaying sending information.
Read U.S. Aerospace’s SEC filing here
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From earlier today:
The latecomers to the Air Force tanker contest were apparently a little too late.
Duo U.S. Aerospace and Antonov are out of the Air Force’s refueling tanker contest, according to this Aviation Week report.
The pair only expressed interest in the $35 billion competition to supply the U.S. Air Force with aerial refueling tankers shortly before the deadline to submit bids. California-based U.S. Aerospace had joined with Ukraine’s Antonov to give the Boeing Co. and EADS another competitor.
But the duo apparently missed the 2 p.m. EST, July 9, deadline.
Earlier today, seattlepi.com reported that U.S. Aerospace hinted that it might protest if the Air Force awarded the lucrative deal to Boeing or EADS.
The Air Force is slated to announce a winner Nov. 12. But as previously reported, doubt is already brewing about whether the Air Force will meet its goal.
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