A.U.S. Air Force decision ear-lier this year to forego a competition for 23 launch contracts and instead divide them roughly evenly between Boeing and Lockheed Martin likely provided the final push that convinced the companies to setde a bitter legal dispute and propose a joint venture to sell Atlas and Delta launchers to the U.S. gov-ernment, according to government and industry officials. Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said another major factor was the Air Force's decision in March to lift the suspension that barred Boeing from competing for Air Force launch contracts. Both the suspension and lawsuit — filed by Lockheed Martin — stemmed from charges that Boeing improperly obtained proprietary Lockheed Martin techni- cal data during the competition for the first round of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) contracts in 1998. An Air Force investigation concluded that Boeing acted improperly and the service imposed an indefinite suspension in July 2003 that barred Boeing from competing for new government launch contracts. That suspension, however, was waived more than once when the Air Force had no readily available alternative to a Boeing launcher.
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