By Emelie Rutherford
The Pentagon will release the long-awaited solicitation for the Air Force tanker today, when observers will wait to hear if Northrop Grumman [NOC]- European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) will stay in the contest or yield to competitor Boeing [BA].
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, Pentagon acquisition czar Ashton Carter, and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley will brief lawmakers today on the final request for proposals (RFP) for the aerial-refueling plane, Donley said yesterday.
Northrop Grumman-EADS supporters charge the Pentagon changed the tanker solicitation too much since the last competition for the aircraft, and that a draft of the RFP favors Boeing. Northrop Grumman-EADS previously won that tanker contract in February 2008 before the Pentagon canceled it following Boeing’s successful protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Donley told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) during a budget hearing yesterday that the latest competition will “absolutely” be fair and open.
“We believe both offerors have a chance to win this competition,” he said. “We want a competition, and we disagree with the view that the draft RFP has been slanted in any particular direction.”
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), whose state would benefit if Northrop Grumman-EADS wins the contract and assembles tankers in the city of Mobile, asked Donley why the Pentagon didn’t limit itself to changing only six areas of the RFP from the last competition identified as problematic by the GAO.
“Rather than going back and just remedying those six areas (by) tightening the language…what I’ve seen…the initial RFP for comment…is completely one-sided in my view,” Rogers alleged.
Donley replied “the overall message from the GAO assessment was that, yes, there were specific areas that they took issue with, but overall I think the message was that there was too much imprecision and too much subjectivity that could not be conveyed to the offerors in terms of how the decisions, how the evaluation will be made.”
“And so we took away from that the need to tighten up our description of what the required capabilities were, and how the evaluation would be conducted, and to lock down those details to be as open and transparent and as clear as we could possibly be,” he maintained. “And that is the source, really, of the draft that has been on the street.”
Changes have been made to that draft that are reflected in the final RFP, Pentagon officials have acknowledged.
Donley told the HASC the Pentagon remains opposed to splitting the long-stalled tanker contract between the two competitors, a move some lawmakers support to avoid further delays.
A dual buy would cost the Air Force too much, he said. The service now plans to buy about 15 airplanes per year. Under a dual buy, he said a minimum economic order would likely be 12 aircraft, meaning the Air Force would need to find the resources to buy 24 tankers per year.
Northrop Grumman-EADS supporters have backed a split buy. Mobile, Ala., officials traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to tout a dual buy as an immediate jobs-generator.
“If the administration and Congress are serious about legitimate, lasting, stimulus, then this is a no-brainer,” Mobile City Councilwoman Connie Hudson said in a statement.
A tanker-dual-buy campaign called Build Them Both also launched this week. It is the first campaign of American Jobs Now, a coalition with a 501c4 tax status, which means it is a non-profit organization that can lobby and campaign.
American Jobs Now contacted Northrop Grumman seeking its support on Monday, but the company has not contributed to the new group, Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said. Still, he said, “we don’t see why anyone would not support efforts to produce tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S. at a time when jobs are needed most.”
Meanwhile, nine governors on Monday announced a pro-Boeing-tanker coalition called U.S. Tanker 2010, pledging to be very vocal in advocating for the company’s proposal (Defense Daily, Feb. 23).