Lawmakers Say Pentagon Will Reopen $35B Tanker Bid

[sabra]

Source: ABC News


Lawmakers say Pentagon will reopen tanker bid, award winner by the end of the year

The Pentagon will re-compete a $35 billion contract to build the Air Force's fleet of new refueling tankers and pick a new winner by the end of the year, lawmakers said Wednesday.

Reps. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., and Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said the Office of the Secretary of Defense — not the Air Force — will oversee the competition between Boeing Co. and a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp.

The plan, which hands control to the Pentagon's top acquisition chief and sets up a dedicated source-selection committee, indicates that senior civilians at the Defense Department have lost confidence in the Air Force's ability to manage the contract.

"I think it's better," Dicks said. "No one has any faith in the Air Force."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=5339967

[Debau2005]

1. So Boeing loses, pitches a fit and gets a second turn at bat? nt

http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/121559490534500.xml&coll=3

[kmac3]

2. Wrong from the very start . . . .

Again, politics created a situation of unfairness that rightfully needed correcting. These lobbyists are powerful people with way too much money. I am hoping, but not totally comfortable, that being overseen by the Defense Department will be more successful. :mad:

From the very beginning I feel strongly that all products of any kind for the military should be produced by American companies located in the United States. It's the tax payers money and they should have the right to produce the product. Why are we benefiting a profit to companies abroad?

[depakid]

3. Europeans on the other hand buy a LOT of American produced defense goods

and are chafed because the US rarely reciprocates. As a result, if contracts like this shut out Europeans bidders (who in this case were investing their money into new facilities for producing the planes in the US) we can expect the same from them. Parochialism in this could well end up being a net negative.

Quite aside from the fact that Nothrop/EADS has the better aircraft.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. why should that be

Since the government allowed Boeing and McDonnell Douglas to merge there is no longer a real competition to be had between domestic vendors. Are you saying notable corporate criminal Boeing should be allowed to simply dictate the terms to the federal government because they are the only qualified vendor?

That is what Dick Cheney is into.

Boeing needs to be punished harshly for the leasing scandal, they should have been banned from this competition entirely.

The way the EADS tanker deal was structured is fundementally the same as many arms deals between the US and elsewhere. American design, built in the customers country by domestic labor.

If this isn't going to be allowed, the rape and pillage of the taxpayer will continue as the aerospace and defense industry continues to consolidate. The only way to keep these corporate criminals in check is with foreign competition.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

4. Dear Corporate America...

you will never be held to account for defrauding the taxpayer, please resume your looting.

Boeing lost this competition because they brought a scooter to a motocross rally and believed if they waved the flag hard enough they could win without any real investment.

And Boeing should have been banned from the competition in the first place.