Gates: DoD Aiming for Tanker RfP in Early 2010
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 27 Jan 17:06 EST (22:06 GMT)
Pentagon officials hope to restart a contentious competition to buy Air Force refueling jets in coming months, with the goal of releasing a formal solicitation early next year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
His comments, made Jan. 27 during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, offered the first look at the schedule the new Obama administration might use for the now-stalled Air Force KC-X program.
Earlier in the day, Gates told the Senate panel "the best way forward" is for the Air Force to run a "competitive process" that "meets all technical requirements and gets the best deal for the taxpayer."
In September, Gates halted a competition between Boeing and a team composed of Northrop Grumman and EADS for a $35 billion, 179-plane contract. That race was launched after congressional auditors last summer upheld Boeing's protest of the Air Force's February 2008 decision to buy the flying gas stations from the Northrop-EADS team.
Gates told the House committee he still feels a split buy, meaning purchasing some numbers of both the Boeing and Northrop-EADS planes, would be an "absolutely terrible idea."
But he noted he has yet to discuss the matter with key Obama administration officials.
In September, Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force chief of staff, said the service had prepared for senior Pentagon officials several plans that would last as few as eight months or could span 48 months. At that time, Schwartz indicated one option would have been to hold an abbreviated competition "that could just include an RfP," or request for proposals.
But the timeline Gates floated before the House panel suggests Obama's defense officials will run a traditional competition, not a speedier one.
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