Highly dissatisfied with the government’s new time plan to award the long pending air tanker contract by the first of January next year, Boeing supporters already smell a rat in the whole set up. Not ruling out the possibility of a second protest they consider the new timetable too unrealistic and skewed in favor of Northrop.

The tug of war for the prestigious and high profile, in flight refueling tankers’ contract has been on for a while between Northrop Grumman (NOC) and Boeing (BA). The $35 billion contract is for the production of 179 air tankers to refuel fighters and bombers. The current set of fuel tankers used by the air force is 40 years old and due to be replaced.

Terming the programme to be “more time critical” the Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed a sense of urgency in awarding the reopened contract. Which on the other hand, has become a matter of concern rather, a bone of contention between Boeing supporters and the government authorities, as the time span seems too short to them.

The Government’s Time Plan
Considered unrealistic and over ambitious by many the government’s time plan requires both the companies to discuss the requirements of the air force in detail next week and then submit their proposals by first of October. The proposals would be followed by some more discussions based on which the best and final offers would have to be made by the companies, by the end of November/early December.

The winner would be chosen by New Year so that the contestants can be debriefed in the first week of January.

Boeing’s contentions
Boeing supporters for reasons more than one consider the contest rigged right from the beginning. Boeing planes are based on the tanker version of its 767 jetliner, while Northrop planes follow the bigger Airbus A330 design. According to Boeing it was told by air force that basing its design on the bigger Boeing 777 initially, would not give any edge to it in the contract. Thus Boeing followed the advice and settled for the smaller Boeing 767. However, when the contract was announced, it was awarded to Northrop for it having submitted a design of greater capacity.

This happened back in February after which Boeing protested the contract. The present timetable of the government has left Boeing with no choice or time to make any changes or amends and it is obvious that Northrop would get the contract based on its bigger design again.

Boeing supporters are not ruling out the possibility of a second protest, if they find no changes made in the original requirements and evaluation criteria.

"Given the very narrow window for commenting on this draft," a Boeing spokesman said, "our team is focused on identifying and understanding any changes that may have been made to the original requirements and evaluation criteria. We also need to see how the document addresses the strong concerns the Government Accountability Office identified in sustaining our protest."

Also Boeing needs 12 to 15 months to come up with a suitable design, while Northrop is ready with it. While the original process took 10 months for selection, the current process gives just three months to the contenders.

"The unusually brief timeline of the new RFP process also suggests that the Pentagon wants to justify its previous decision.” Said Dicks.

Not only that, US politicians are against the contract going to Northrop as it would mean more jobs for Europeans as compared to Americans.

Northrop’s Response
Responding quite favorably to the new plan of Pentagon, the company spokesman said “Northrop applauds the Defense Dept. for recognizing the urgency of replacing the Eisenhower-era refueling tankers via a thorough yet speedy revised acquisition process."