Even outside analysts said the Defense Department tweaked the “request for proposals” in a way that will bolster the larger European tanker over the medium-size Boeing tanker. And with initial bids due in two months, Boeing won’t have time to prepare an offer using one of its larger planes.

“It’s obviously stacked against Boeing,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that focuses on national security and defense issues. “It appears to favor a larger aircraft in a way the original did not. But the timeline doesn’t give Boeing an opportunity to prepare a bid for a larger plane.”

The Air Force earlier had awarded the contract for 179 tankers to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. After Boeing filed a protest, the Government Accountability Office concluded there were “significant errors” in the contract award and recommended a new competition.

Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said the department addressed the GAO’s concerns in a “measured, serious way, in a way that will be fair to both (bidders) and in the best interest of the war fighters and the taxpayers.”

But critics said the bid request favors Northrop-EADS because it would, among other things, give “extra credit” for being able to carry more fuel.

“This is unacceptable,” U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, said in a telephone interview from Washington state. “All they have tried to do is vindicate their earlier decision. This was done by their lawyers and political types.”

“After going round after round on our military’s most important and critically needed procurement, the draft request for proposals changes the rules of the game in overtime,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. “Out of the box, this is pretty disconcerting.”

Dicks said he doubted Congress would let the latest bid proposal stand. The House Appropriations defense subcommittee, which Dicks serves on, has already taken steps to bar the Pentagon from seeking a larger tanker without rewriting the entire bid proposal.

Assad said the draft request for bids will be finalized by the middle of this month, and Boeing and Northrop-EADS will have until Oct. 1 to submit preliminary bids. Final proposals will be due Dec. 1, with a decision expected by New Year’s Day.

Because of the earlier problems, the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates has assumed control of the tanker competition from the Air Force, though Assad said the Air Force will still play a significant role.

“We have provided clear and unambiguous insight into the technical factors we will evaluate,” said Assad, adding that the changes did not represent a “major modification” of the bid request.

In a statement, Boeing hinted that the intended mission of the tanker may have been changed, but it was “too early to offer any details of Boeing’s path forward.”

Randy Belote, a spokesman for Northrop-EADS, said his team would be evaluating the bid request to ensure there would be a “fair and nonpolitical evaluation” of the competing proposals.

Either side could appeal the Pentagon’s action, which could delay the competition into next year, when a new administration will take office.

The tanker contract eventually could be worth $100 billion as the Air Force replaces its fleet of Cold War-era tankers.

Washington’s other senator, Democrat Maria Cantwell, is blocking the nomination of Michael Donley as the new Air Force secretary over concerns the Pentagon wouldn’t conduct a fair re-bidding.

“I hope they aren’t stacking the deck,” Cantwell said. “If they want a bigger plane, they should start over.”

Lawmakers from Alabama said they were satisfied with the Pentagon’s new bid proposal.

The Northrop-EADS tanker would be based on an Airbus A330 airframe. The A330 is assembled in France using French-, British-, German- and Spanish-manufactured parts. Northrop-EADS has said its tanker eventually would be assembled in Mobile, Ala., but has postponed groundbreaking on a plant there.

The Boeing tanker would use a 767 airframe assembled at the company’s Everett plant and modified for military use in Wichita, Kan. Though the company could offer a larger version of the 767, or the 777, 747 or even the new 787, it could take months to do the technical work required for a bid.

Les Blumenthal: 202-383-0008

blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics