By Emelie Rutherford
Lawmakers on both sides of the Air Force tanker contract dispute said their stances were not altered by reviewing yesterday a longer version of an auditor’s report recommending reopening the bid process following a flawed award to a Northrop Grumman [NOC]-European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) team.
“This sixty-seven page decision boils down to the fact that the Air Force ran a tanker competition that was neither transparent nor fair,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a supporter of losing tanker bidder Boeing [BA] and a defense appropriator, said in a statement.
“The GAO’s analysis finds that the Air Force’s decision was based on an ‘unrealistic’ and ‘unreasonable’ process. Any suggestion that the Pentagon can move forward without addressing these issues is simply unbelievable,” she said, arguing that “this contract must be quickly rebid to ensure our warfighters don’t pay the price for these mistakes.”
Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman contract supporter and defense appropriator Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) was quick to note that the General Accountability Office’s (GAO) June 18 recommendation “was not an indictment of the Northrop Grumman/EADS offering; it was merely a reflection on the apparently flawed Air Force acquisition process.”
“I am hopeful that after further review the Air Force will again determine that the KC-30 is the best solution for our armed forces,” Shelby said in a statement.
The GAO released yesterday a redacted, 67-page version of its 69-page June 18 decision sustaining Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s aerial-refueling tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman.
Speculation is rampant on Capitol Hill as to whether Pentagon officials plan to heed the GAO’s nonbinding recommendation to reopen the competition or intend to keep the contract with Northrop Grumman to start production soon.
The House Armed Services Air and Land Forces subcommittee has scheduled a closed briefing for today with the GAO and Air Force. It was not clear yesterday, though, if defense officials would attend.
Senate defense authorizers and appropriators said they have been briefed on the GAO decision since it was released last week.
Boeing backers Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) plan to file legislation this week that would mandate the Air Force reopen the tanker competition, aides said.
Roberts, Tiahrt and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) sent yesterday a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging him to quickly address the tanker contract. Tiahrt and Brownback sit on defense appropriations panels.
“First and foremost, the existing contract with the EADS Team should be cancelled,” the lawmakers write in the letter, arguing EADS should have been eliminated from the tanker competition over noncompliance with Air Force requirements.
“Given this and other ‘significant errors’ in the original contract award, it would be unacceptable for the current contract to remain in force,” Roberts, Brownback and Tiahrt argue, calling for the Defense Department to consider awarding the contract directly to Boeing or recompete the contract.
Murray also highlighted yesterday that the GAO’s 67-page decision touches on EADS noncompliance with requirements.
Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman contract supporter Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a defense authorizer, said that while the GAO’s full report is highly technical and will require a close reading, his “initial observation is that it contains nothing to suggest that the NG/EADS aircraft is not the best airplane for our military.”
“The GAO’s concerns are strictly related to the Air Force’s selection process, not its final judgment,” he said in a statement. “We await the Air Force’s response, which may provide legitimate rationale for the procedural steps it took.”
Sessions said that neither GAO nor Congress “is qualified to select which airplanes our pilots fly.”
“Moving forward, I intend to do everything I can to ensure this competition is free of undue political influence,” he said. “The Air Force will need to address the concerns of the report, but, in the end, it is critical that they be allowed to choose the tanker that best meets their needs and requirements.”
Some Capitol Hill observers see tanker decisions resting with defense-wide officials because of the recent ouster of the Air Force’s top two officials and ongoing transition to a new team. Gates met yesterday on the tanker matter with Pentagon acquisition czar John Young and Air Force acquisition head Sue Payton.