Boeing Co says the aerial tanker it proposed for a $35 billion Pentagon program is no longer a good match because the Air Force is now emphasising fuel capacity and it deserves six months more to challenge Northrop Grumman Corp’s larger plane.
“What we proposed 18 months ago would not fit the bill for what the Air Force is looking for,” Boeing spokesman Daniel Beck said in an interview. “Our 767-200 doesn't fill the bill. We’ve been looking at other configurations” because the Air Force's “priority is fuel capacity.”
The company needs six months to study and prepare its bid based on a new airplane, he said.
The request may leave US military officials facing the prospect of a longer wait to replace a fleet of aging tankers, or possibly leaving Northrop as the sole bidder on the program. Giving Boeing extra time would also push the decision on the contract into next year and a new US president, which may create additional obstacles.
“I get a feeling that they are perhaps playing delay tactics,” Michel Merluzeau, an aviation consultant at G2 Solutions in Kirkland, Washington, said in an interview. “They could probably get even more time if, say, the Democrats win” the election in November and take office in January.
Chicago-based Boeing may quit the contest unless it gets more time, Beck said. In the last round of the competition, which Los Angeles-based Northrop won in February, both companies got about “seven to eight months” to submit bids after the Pentagon announced a draft proposal, Beck said.
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Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ryder said senior officials couldn't be reached for comment.
Second Competition: The Government Accountability Office decided on June 19 to uphold Boeing's protest. The GAO said the Air Force made “significant errors” in awarding the contract to Northrop and partner European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co, the parent of Boeing rival Airbus SAS.
The Pentagon agreed to reopen bidding on eight issues raised by the GAO, and released a draft proposal on Aug 6 that, among other things, specified that there would be an advantage for a larger fuel payload. The department has said it will issue a final bid request next week and then give the competitors about 45 days to respond. Boeing now says that's not enough time to produce a bid with a bigger aircraft.
Boeing's request is “reasonable and it should be granted,” George Behan, a spokesman for Representative Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat, said in an e-mail. Dicks' state encompasses Boeing's Seattle-area manufacturing bases. Boeing’s allies in Congress have said that awarding the contract to the team of Northrop and Toulouse, France-based Airbus team may cost US jobs.
A Half Century: Boeing, which has supplied Air Force refueling tankers for more than a half-century, based its bid on a modified 767 commercial plane. The Northrop-EADS entry was based on the Airbus A330 commercial jetliner. The Northrop aircraft can carry 250,000 pounds of fuel, more than Boeing’s 205,000.
The next biggest plane in Boeing's commercial lineup is the 777, which is bigger than the A330.
In 2004, a Boeing contract with the Air Force to lease replacement tankers was scrapped because of ethical violations that sent a Boeing executive and a Pentagon official to jail. The scandal led to a new competition that opened the door to Northrop and Airbus.
Boeing rose 34 cents to $63.55 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange trading and Northrop declined 1 cent to $69.39.