By Marina Malenic

Northrop Grumman [NOC] officials said yesterday that all options–including legal action–are on the table to compel the release of pricing data from rival Boeing‘s [BA] bid in last year’s competition for a contract to build the Air Force’s next-generation aerial refueling tanker.

“Boeing was provided our bid pricing data,” Randy Belote, Northrop’s vice president for communications, told reporters in Washington. “So that’s a major concern, that with the predominance of cost being evident in this source-selection process, we consider ourselves at a serious disadvantage.”

Belote said the company could, for example, attempt to discover the pricing data through the Freedom of Information Act, or even undertake some unspecified legal action.

Northrop Grumman last year won the KC-X contract, which is expected to be worth between $25 billion and $50 billion through the life of the acquisition. Boeing’s protest of that award was sustained by the Government Accountability Office. During that process, Northrop Grumman’s price breakdowns were shared with all parties involved in the action.

Since the release of a new draft request for proposals last month, executives from Northrop Grumman and its subcontractor, EADS North America, have cried foul about what they say is the unequal data-sharing.

The Defense Department has asked Boeing to allow disclosure of its pricing data, but Boeing declined, according to a letter to Northrop Grumman officials from Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Charles Johnson (Defense Daily, Oct. 26). Pentagon officials have said the information is not pertinent to the new competition.

Belote said yesterday that the release to Boeing of Northrop Grumman’s bid price–instead of an overall cost as evaluated by the Defense Department–was illegal.

“The regulations neither require nor authorize disclosure of the awardees’ proposed cost or price,” he said.

Boeing released a statement yesterday saying that it will “talk about the KC-X tanker competition when we’re ready and when it’s appropriate.”

“Our preference is to allow the process to play out rather than work the requirements through the media,” company spokesman Bill Barksdale said via email.

Both companies have been asked to provide the Pentagon with comments on a draft request for proposals before the final RFP is issued in the coming weeks.

Asked whether Northrop Grumman will protest the draft or pull out of the competition, another Northrop Grumman official declined to speculate.

“We really need to see what the final request for proposals looks like before we make that determination,” said Mitch Waldman, company vice president for business development.