Posted on 09/10/2008 6:47:24 AM PDT by shove_it
The Pentagon has canceled its $35 billion tanker competition, according to a report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal's online edition. According to the report, the Department of Defense will likely notify the companies and Congress later in the day of its decision, noting that it's unable to pick a winner by January. Boeing (BA:Boeing Co. News, chart, profile, more Last: 62.55-1.47-2.30%
9:43am 09/10/2008 ...
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Oh, for the love of Pete....
give me that stupid contract and I’ll get it done...cheese and rice...
What happens now?
They’ll just reissue under a new #. Still this will push the process out 6 months at least.
Some unnamed company will whine louder. Some unnamed Senator/Congressperson will complain and hold hearings. A whitewash will ensue and Congress will demand the contract be let to the loudest whiner!
translation, the pencil pushers and desk jockeys are counting on more democrats to push government pork the way they need it to go.
I think you’ve described the typical steps for government procurement since Korea...
Aerospace ping
The Union strike at Boeing sure helped the Government make this decision. What a waste of time and money delaying this decision.
Good.
While I supported Boeing in this, the fact is that there was never any burning need for a new tanker right now. We upgraded them under a decade ago with glass cockpits and new engines and basically had them remanufactured. Even USAF admits there’s a lot of life left in those airframes. Maybe USAF will now sped the money on things it actually needs, like increasing their UAV fleet as SecDef directed them to a long time ago.
Well it’s a gosh-darn good thing the DOD is in charge of making difficult decisions in wartime: like where to invade, how many troopers and tanks to send in the invading force, and how to supply them with beans and bullets.
I guess the easy decisions (like WHICH OF TWO AIRPLANES TO BUILD) are too simple to waste time on
Never ending story of Air Force needs new tanker ping.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/10/business/10tanker.php
“Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional - in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense,” Gates said in the statement. “In the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment.”
Next competition starts in March or April 2009. NG'S offer is selected March 2010. Boeing's protest is sustained about November 2010. At that time Boeing already closed the 767 line and wants more time to offer a 787...
Like someone already posted. This is just a way for our current _govenors_ to buy time to figure out how and when to send the money to foreigners. The inescapble torque being applied to force this overseas could well be another (subtle) sign of our enormous debt. The creditors decide the policy of those in debt...
This is great and a brilliant move by Gates. He’s telling Congress (Pelosi & Reed) that they haven’t done anything and are going to have to do something about the acquisition where whenever a company loses a contract they sue and challenge the bid.
I guess that's above the pay grade of the Air Force generals in the Pentagon.
It also reflects that Congress was full appraised that the Gates team had tried to also throw the contract to EADs by changing the RFPs to give the advantage to larger capacity...
Here is the actual DOD News Release:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is canceling the Pentagon’s request for bids for the controversial mid-air refueling tanker program that set off a lobbying war between Boeing and Northrop Grumman.The mistakes and misteps apparently continued. Shelby is squealing because it is clear that time is not on the side of the EADs team, as the Public gets more and more aware of the Defense infrastructure at stake here...and as the economy continues to erode drastically.In a news release that cited “mistakes and missteps” by the Defense Department, Gates said he was terminating competition for the $35 billion contract to give the next administration full flexibility to decide how to handle the process.
“Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional — in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense,” Gates said. “It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment.”
The termination this year would allow for a “cooling off” period that would allow the next administration to craft a new acquisition strategy for the tanker, Gates said. He said the current fleet of refueling tankers could be maintained to satisfy Air Force missions for the near future.
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), whose state would have benefited from Northop’s plans to build tankers there, immediately blasted the decision as political.
“It is unacceptable that the Department of Defense would abdicate its responsibility to our men and women in uniform,” Shelby said in a release. “This misguided decision clearly places business interests above the interests of the warfighter.”
Shelby said the approach advocated by Gates is “irresponsible, shortsighted and harmful to both the warfighter and the nation.”
The decision follows years of controversy surrounding the competition to win the valuable contract.
Most recently, Boeing threatened to quit the competition if the Pentagon did not offer the company more time to prepare its bid. Boeing argued a draft request for bids issued earlier this summer by the Pentagon favored Northrop Grumman and its partner, EADS North America. EADS is the European parent company of Boeing’s chief rival Airbus.
In February, the Air Force awarded the contract to replace the Air Force’s Eisenhower-era tankers to Northrop Grumman and EADS. That set off a massive lobbying and public relations campaign by Boeing — often critical of the Air Force — that culminated in its successful protest to the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO faulted the Air Force’s decision to award the contract to Northrop and EADS, which led the Pentagon to reopen the contract for bids.
Boeing’s backers argue that awarding the contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS would ship U.S. jobs overseas. Northrop’s supporters countered that their bid would create jobs in the U.S. Southeast, where the companies planned to build the tankers.
This was taken up by the Civilian staff...the appointees of the President...who are now backing out.
My guess is that with the EADs deal DOA in Congress, the snafu with the under-the-table-deal with the European "friends" was going to hit the fan. Now W can blame it on the opposition party fully. Also it sidesteps destroying U.S. infrastructure immediately when unemployment is headed up to over 8%.
The mistakes and misteps apparently continued. Shelby is squealing because it is clear that time is not on the side of the EADs team, as the Public gets more and more aware of the Defense infrastructure at stake here...and as the economy continues to erode drastically.
The Writting is on the wall, Job losses, outsourcing to a foreign company. Congress getting bombarded over lost jobs, Unions ect. Congress will rewrite the law to prevent anyone but a whole us company building a american product to bid. Thanks to Cong Duncan Hunter. Time to restructure our aircraft building and keep it AMERICAN. not EADS/NG where half or more of our money goes overseas.
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