This entry was posted
on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 10:30 pm and is filed under U.S. Air Force.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Air Force Brass OK With Sole-Source Tanker Contract.
Air Force officials informed that they’re prepared for the possibility that only Boeing will bid on the upcoming aerial refueling tanker request.
Officials from the Northrop Grumman-EADS team, the only other possible bidder, have informed they won’t bid without changes to criteria they see as favoring Boeing’s smaller 767-based tanker over their Airbus A330-based offering. Air Force and Pentagon officials have said they don’t plan such changes for the final request, which is set for release as soon as Tuesday.
“We are not walking blindly into a situation where we just have one potential offerer,” Lieutenant General Mark Shackelford, military deputy in charge of acquisition for the Air Force, informed a defense conference hosted by Aviation Week.
If Boeing is the only bidder, the Air Force could avoid overcharging because it would have access to detailed information on which to judge costs, particularly since tankers are derived from commercial aircraft, Shackelford said. “So this is by no means a ‘sky is falling’ scenario if we wind up with one offerer.”