Press Releases
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today said he supported Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s decision to award EADS/Northrop Grumman a $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract, and urged a thorough review of the flawed selection process.
"This decision does not put the best product in the hands of our war fighters," Senator Roberts said. "We need the GAO to determine whether the procurement process was fair and whether Boeing was competing on a level playing field based on the appropriate criteria. I think these are very reasonable questions for Boeing to ask." Late last night, the Boeing Company protested the Air Force’s decision to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Among the company’s complaints were the following:
• Manipulation of evaluation criteria and application of unstated and unsupported priorities among the key system requirements – resulted in selection of an aircraft that was radically different from that sought by the Air Force and inferior to the Boeing 767 tanker offering.
• In evaluating Past Performance, the Air Force ignored the fact that Boeing – with 75 years of success in producing tankers – is the only company in the world that has produced a tanker equipped with an operational aerial-refueling boom.
The GAO must now review the process and criteria and report back within 100 days. Earlier today, Senator Roberts joined Senator Sam Brownback in meeting with John Young, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics regarding the tanker decision. Senator Roberts brought up many of the points Boeing included in their protest to GAO. "We had a frank discussion with Undersecretary Young regarding the ability of the Air Force to take into consideration European subsidization of Airbus (EADS)," Senator Roberts said, "And the fact that this decision was based on flawed criteria and factors not explicit in the request for proposal." Senator Roberts continues to work in a bipartisan way with the Kansas congressional delegation and the Washington state delegation in behalf of Boeing workers. -30-
