By Emelie Rutherford
The Pentagon still has control of the aerial-refueling tanker replacement effort and a decision on whether to transfer source-selection authority back to the Air Force does not need to be made before aircraft’s solicitation debuts, a service official said yesterday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave the Pentagon’s acquisition chief this authority over the KC-X tanker competition last year, after the Government Accountability Office sustained Boeing‘s [BA] protest of a now-cancelled contract away to a rival Northrop Grumman [NOC]-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) team. Defense officials are working to restart a delayed competition this summer with a new request for proposals (RFP).
No decision has been made yet on whether to transfer source-selection authority to the Air Force, air service Secretary Michael Donley testified yesterday before the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee (HAC-D).
Pentagon officials have not yet decided if the Air Force will regain that control, service Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said.
“It’s still subject to Undersecretary (of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Ashton) Carter and Secretary Gates’ decision,” Schwartz said after the budget hearing.
Any potential switch-over does not necessarily have to occur before the RFP’s release, but could come “at any time,” he said.
Defense sources acknowledged some confusion about whether the source-selection authority has already been shifted to the Air Force.
Quizzed on the tanker program by Boeing backers Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), Donley told the HAC-D he has been “in dialogue with the new undersecretary for acquisition, Dr. Carter, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense (William Lynn) and our acquisition officials on a regular basis over the last couple of months.
“We hope to take the work that we’ve developed thus far to the (Defense) Secretary very soon, and to have him give us his direction on how to proceed,” he added. “We’re hopeful that that new request for proposal will be out on the street this summer.”
Dicks, who chaired yesterday’s hearing and is the HAC-D’s vice chairman, spoke against compelling the Pentagon to buy tankers from both competitors, an idea supported by committee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) but opposed by Gates.
Donley said a dual buy would force unafforable costs on the Air Force, because the service would have to develop and support two aircraft would have to buy 24 instead of 15 tankers per year. Murtha has said he has data showing a split tanker buy could save money.
Tiahrt and Dicks reiterated their concern that the Air Force previously did not following a defense-acquisition regulation calling for an examination of industrial-base impacts when defense acquisition strategies are developed.
Dicks chided the air service officials to avoid additional actions made during the last tanker competition, including not ensuring the selected tanker could refuel all Air Force aircraft and changing a model for the tanker.
Donley said he and other officials “are going through this process with a fine-tooth comb to make sure that we have established all of the requirements for the program in ways that can be understood and written into a good proposal, a clear proposal, (with) measurable requirements, and that we have good oversight of this program going forward.”
Internal changes have been made within the Air Force to “strengthen that source-selection process,” and “make sure that we can withstand scrutiny,” Donley said.
“We increased the seniority of the teams, we have done remedial training, if you will, we moved contracting responsibilities and oversight to a higher level in the Air Force,” he added.