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WASHINGTON: Pentagon and U.S. Air Force officials are considering changes to a multibillion-dollar competition for new aerial refueling tankers, including a two-year delay in picking a winning bidder, three sources familiar with the proposal said on Monday.
Air Force spokesman Don Manuszewski had no immediate comment on the proposal. He said current plans still call for the Air Force to issue a final request for proposals in December and pick the winning bidder next September.
Air Force officials last month identified replacing tankers as one of their biggest acquisition priorities, given the growing importance of mid-air refueling of fighter jets and other aircraft.
The new competition, valued at upward of $100 billion over 30 to 40 years, pits Boeing Co. against a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS the majority owner of Airbus and Europe's largest defense contractor. defensetalk
Over time, the Air Force plans to buy more than 600 new planes to transport passengers and cargo, and for medical evacuations, communications and surveillance.
Three sources, who asked not to be identified, said that plan was still an option.
But they said officials were also being briefed on a proposal to fund development work on the refueling tanker by both teams of competitors for several years, which would allow more comprehensive testing and evaluation before a contract award in 2009.
That would postpone larger expenditures for several years which could be welcome news for the Pentagon as it faces mounting bills for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the need to replace worn-out equipment.
“They're going through all kinds of gyrations,” one of the sources said.
However, a congressional aide said the Pentagon could face trouble justifying why it needed to fund development work on the tankers since they are based on existing commercial planes and other countries have already ordered the military tanker modification.
Boeing spokeswoman Kerry Gildea had no comment on the proposal. She said Boeing still expected the Air Force to issue its request for proposals (RFP) in December, with the industry due to respond in February.
She did note that the existing fleet of KC-135 tankers was more than 45 years old, and air crews will still be flying some when they are 80 years old, since it will take decades to replace the existing fleet.
Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said his company had not been informed about any delay in the tanker award. “We still expect the RFP by the end of the year,” Belote said.
