GAO urges USAF to rethink tanker contract award

摘要

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has sustained a protest from Boeing over the US Air Force's (USAF's) decision to award a USD35 billion contract for a new fleet of aerial refuelling tankers to a team comprising Northrop Grumman and EADS. The GAO called on the USAF to make a new source selection decision on the KC-X Stratotanker replacement contract in an 18 June announcement. GAO officials recommended that "the air force re-open discussions with the [contractors], obtain revised proposals, re-evaluate the revised proposals and make a new source selection decision". The GAO said that it decided to recommend re-opening the tanker contracting process because USAF acquisition officials made "a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome" of the competition between Boeing and the winning Northrop Grum-man/EADS team. If the USAF accepts the GAO's recommendations, Boeing may get a second chance to claim the contract for 179 new tanker aircraft.