For the Air Force, acquiring a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers has been nothing short of a nightmare, a nearly nine-year drama that hasn't brought the service any closer to replacing its Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers. For snarky defense reporters, it's been a dream: The story has included backroom deals, dramatic political hearings, even prison sentences.
Tomorrow, the Air Force is set to launch a new request for bids to build a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers. At stake? As much as $35 billion in new orders. The current Air Force five-year spending plan proposes to spend $11.7 billion on a first batch of flying gas tanks, including research and development costs. If all goes to plan, the service plans to buy 179 aircraft over the life of the program.
In February 2008, Northrop and its European partner EADS won a tanker contract, but rival Boeing successfully contested the award. In a congressional hearing this morning, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said that top defense officials would brief lawmakers tomorrow on the details of the contract. According to Reuters, Donley said the service decided to "lock down the details" after the Government Accountability Office overturned the results of the previous contest.
The new competition may be equally contentious: Bloomberg notes that Northrop CEO Wes Bush has threatened to pull out of the contest unless the draft request for bids was revised to the company’s satisfaction. In a letter last year to Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, Bush complained that the draft request for proposal (RFP) was skewed in favor of Boeing.
So! Can we expect a final award this time, or will this story continue to keep defense journalists gainfully employed? Should Danger Room relaunch a contest to name the aircraft? Speaking yesterday to reporters, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said: "We are very hopeful that we will have two competitors. And we think that it is a very fair RFP."
[PHOTO: U.S. Department of Defense]
