By Emelie Rutherford
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a close watchdog of the contest to build the next Air Force tanker, said yesterday he will not fight to change Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] decision to exit the contest and will closely monitor Boeing [BA] going forward.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said it may accelerate the aerial-refueling tanker procurement schedule, following word Monday that a Northrop Grumman-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) team will not submit an aircraft proposal.
Lawmakers backing Northrop Grumman-EADS, which would have assembled the aircraft in Mobile, Ala., reiterated charges yesterday that the Pentagon was biased in two-way competition toward Boeing’s smaller tanker proposal.
McCain told Defense Daily yesterday he had no plans to discuss modifications of the tanker request for proposals (RFP) with the Pentagon to ensure there is a competition and not a sole-source contract to Boeing.
“I can’t get involved in it, it’s not appropriate role for me,” said McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) who has kept a close eye on Boeing in the long-delayed tanker saga. “I just have to do make sure that I do everything possible to make sure (the tanker procurement) stays on track. And I will insist on a fixed-cost contract” with Boeing.
While McCain said he would “love to see” a tanker competition, he said he cannot force one.
“We’ll just have to monitor it very carefully,” he said. “This is the result of the consolidation of the defense industry that took place in the ’80s and early ’90s, and it’s very unfortunate. So it really means that oversight is now of paramount importance.”
McCain has a long history with the Pentagon’s attempts to award a tanker contract, including helping expose corruption in tanker dealings between the Air Force and Boeing early this decade that landed two people in prison.
Outspoken Northrop Grumman-EADS backer Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said he still wants to fight to ensure the team competes for the tanker, but as of yesterday did not have a gameplan.
“I don’t know what the next step is, frankly, but I think it’s too important to let slide, and I continue to evaluate it,” Sessions told Defense Daily.
He said he wants Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Barack Obama to evaluate Northrop Grumman’s decision.
“The Defense Department will be powerless when you only have one bidder to contain costs,” Sessions argued. “They’ll pretend that they can somehow control this, but they’re not able to.”
Boeing’s many congressional supporters from states including Washington, meanwhile, hailed Northrop Grumman’s announcement and insisted Boeing still will be closely monitored if it is the only tanker bidder. They rejected claims the RFP was biased toward Boeing.
SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told Defense Daily he had tanker questions he wanted the Pentagon to answer.
“What are the impacts of not having competition at this stage, and…in the absence of it, how do you mitigate the loss of competition, (that) is going to be my (main) question,” Levin said.
He said in general “there’s always a downside to a lack of competition.”
Yet he declined to give an opinion on Northrop Grumman’s announcement, saying he wanted to learn more about the company’s argument for withdrawing.
Levin did not know yesterday if the SASC would hold a hearing on Northrop Grumman’s move, but said he expected briefings from the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday if Boeing ends up being the only tanker bidder the Defense Department may accelerate the purchasing timeline. The acquisition strategy laid out in the Feb. 24 RFP calls for proposals to be submitted by mid-May followed by a contract award in September.
“We may be in a position where we will be able to take a look at compressing some of those milestones,” Whitman told reporters at the Pentagon.
He said Pentagon officials are confident they have enough leverage over Boeing to avoid an inflated price.
“There is baseline cost data that is associated with these airframes,” Whitman said.
“There are also measures the (Defense) Department can take to make sure we are controlling the costs,” he added, without elaborating on those steps.
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.
Northrop Grumman CEO and President Wes Bush is chiding the Pentagon to control costs with a likely sole-source Boeing contract. In the last tanker round, the initial unit flyaway cost of the Northrop Grumman-EADS tanker would have been $184 million per aircraft.
“With the (Defense) Department’s decision to procure a much smaller, less capable design, the taxpayer should certainly expect the bill to be much less,” Bush argues in the March 8 missive to Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter.
Bush’s letter to Carter coincided with a press statement Monday declaring his company would not submit a bid to the Defense Department for the KC-X tanker program because it believes the source-selection methodology defined in the RFP favors Boeing’s smaller aircraft. The letter and press release contain much of the same language.