The Pentagon reopened a US$35 billion contract on Wednesday to produce a new generation of aerial fuel tankers, acknowledging flaws in the US Air Force’s decision to award it to Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS.
In an embarrassing about-face, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Northrop Grumman and rival Boeing would be asked to submit revised bids for the tanker contract to a new US Defense Department team.
“We believe that we can complete all of this and award a contract by December,” Gates told a Pentagon briefing, adding that reopening the competition would not “represent a return to the first step of a process that already has gone on far too long.”
The move comes after the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) last month backed a protest by Boeing that it had lost the deal to Northrop and its partner European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company — the parent firm of Boeing’s plane rival Airbus — in a flawed process.
The GAO found “a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition.”
Gates said the Pentagon would address those errors in the new process, adding “we will request revised proposals from industry.”
In an implicit rebuke to the air force, Gates also shifted responsibility for picking a winner from the air force to the Pentagon’s under secretary of defense for acquisitions, John Young.
“Industry, Congress and American people all must have confidence in the integrity of this acquisition process,” he said.
Although many members of Congress supported the move, Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, a strong Boeing supporter, called for “a real rebid, not a rehash” of the old contract.
Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain supported Gates’ decision.
“The steps he announced reflect ... the need for continuing oversight of the process by which the [defense] department decides to purchase its largest and most expensive weapons,” McCain said in a statement.
The new process could wrest the mega-contract from Northrop and EADS in a dogfight fraught with protectionist overtones.
Earlier this year Northrop Grumman said that the contract would directly or indirectly create 48,000 jobs in the US.
But the choice of EADS raised protectionist hackles in Congress, with lawmakers citing security concerns and job losses to Europe at a time when the US economy is struggling.
The 179 new aircraft are to replace the air force’s fleet of aging tankers made by Boeing, up to now the sole supplier of air refueling planes to the US military.
The contract is for the initial phase of a fleet replacement project worth some US$100 billion over the next 30 years.
Northrop Grumman said it wanted to make sure the bidding remains fair.
“We are reviewing the decision to ensure the re-competition will provide both companies a fair opportunity to present the strengths of their proposals,” Northrop Grumman vice president Randy Belote said.
Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, said the company would “fully support our partner Northrop Grumman in rapidly addressing our customer’s requirements.”
Boeing welcomed the Pentagon decision.
“We look forward to working with the new acquisition team as it reopens the competition, but we will also take time to understand the updated solicitation to determine the right path forward for the company,” a Boeing statement said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2