Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a stinging rebuke of Air Force administration two months ago when he yanked its authority for awarding the contract for new aerial refueling tankers.
Now the Defense Department risks compounding the huge procurement blunder that prompted the Air Force’s dressing down.
The Pentagon is expected to release its final call for bids on the tanker contract any day. Should it stick by a timeline giving companies just weeks to respond, the Defense Department will have effectively stacked the deck – again – by undercutting Boeing’s ability to compete.
In June, the Government Accountability Office found serious flaws in the Air Force’s award of the $35 billion tanker deal to a partnership of Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent of Boeing rival Airbus.
The Air Force had essentially sabotaged Boeing’s chances by giving Airbus more information to develop its proposal and then miscalculating the strengths of its bids.
Gates stepped in, promising a rebid and a new decision by the end of the year. The tight timeline made Boeing supporters wary from the get-go, and their suspicions were confirmed last month when the Defense Department released draft tanker specifications that give Airbus a clear advantage.
The Pentagon’s revised criteria essentially make official the bias that the GAO had faulted the Air Force for not stating up front. The Air Force had said it would not award extra points for a bigger airplane – and then did. The Defense Department’s response was to state an explicit preference for a bigger airplane.
Clarity is certainly welcome, but the problem here is that one of the competitors has gotten a huge head start. Boeing might be able to offer a bigger plane, but the company can’t shift gears so dramatically in the space of a few weeks.
The Air Force needs to get on with replacing its aging fleet of aerial-refueling tankers, which are key to maintaining the U.S. air power’s global range. It cannot afford for Boeing to drop out of the running now. Congress is unlikely to go along with plans to award what would amount to a multibillion-dollar, sole-source contract in the face of staunch opposition from powerful Boeing allies.
The Pentagon’s best bet of expediting the process and insulating it from further protests is to make sure it is completely fair. It’s done one better than the Air Force by making its preferences plain; now it should give Boeing sufficient time to try to meet them.
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