By Marina Malenic and Emelie Rutherford
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that he would soon announce a decision on whether the Air Force will rebid a tanker aircraft contract awarded to Northrop Grumman [NOC].
“I expect to announce the way forward very soon,” Gates said during a Tuesday morning press briefing at Fort Lewis.
Gates has previously said he is seeking “an approach that has the confidence of the Congress” and examining “several options” on how to proceed with procurement of a new fleet of refueling aircraft (Defense Daily, June 27). Some sources said he could disclose his plan as soon as this afternoon.
The Government Accountability Office last month sustained Boeing‘s [BA] March 11 protest of the award, said to be worth some $35 billion. The auditors found that the service “had made a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman” and recommended that the bidding process be reopened (Defense Daily, June 19).
The Defense Department has until Aug. 17 to respond to the GAO report, but Pentagon sources said Gates would announce a decision on the issue later today.
Top Pentagon and Air Force officials are scheduled to testify tomorrow before the House Armed Service air and land forces subcommittee–the first of what is likely to be an extended series of congressional hearings on the topic.
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, senior defense officials may provide telephone briefings to leaders of the key defense and appropriations panels as soon as this morning, congressional sources said.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), an outspoken critic of the Northrop Grumman tanker award, introduced a resolution yesterday calling on the Pentagon to rebid the contract. The non- binding measure is co-sponsored by Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).
If defense officials indicate they do not plan to heed the GAO’s call to rebid the contract, Murray said she and other lawmakers will tell defense officials “that Congress will take a look at what action it can take.”
Some lawmakers have threatened to cut off tanker funding if the Air Force keeps the contract with Northrop Grumman. Murray, a defense appropriator and member of Senate leadership, yesterday stuck to her refrain that “everything’s on the table.”
“I think what everybody’s waiting to see is if the Pentagon’s going to do the right thing tomorrow and then we can make a determination,” she said yesterday.
Murray said she has been in contact with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D- Hawaii) on the matter. Levin has joined the chorus of lawmakers calling for a new tanker competition.
Although the initial tanker contract is valued at approximately $35 billion, two follow-on contracts to replace the remainder of the aging fleet could make the program worth over $100 billion.