Northrop Grumman has told Pentagon acquisition chief Ash Carter that it will not submit a bid for the KC-X tanker program unless the government makes significant changes to the final request for proposal. The company made its declaration in a letter today from incoming Northrop CEO Wes Bush to Carter: “As a result, I must regrettably inform you that, absent a responsive set of changes in the final RFP, Northrop Grumman has determined that it cannot submit a bid to the department for the KC-X program.”
Bush left the door to a vibrant competition somewhat open, adding that the company hopes the Pentagon “will elect to modify its approach to this procurement in a way that will enable us to offer our product for your consideration.”
Company spokesman Randy Belote confirmed the letter’s contents. Belote said the company is “convinced that they want a prefer smaller tanker with less multirole which puts our tanker at a terrible disadvantage.”
A veteran aerospace analyst was more direct. “This is the stupidest contest you’ve ever seen,” said Joel Johnson, a consultant for various international clients, including Northrop Grumman. “It’s a Boeing RFP. When air forces have been able to decide on merit and price, every one of them has gone with the KC-45 clone.”
So what Northrup is saying is that they won't submit a bid to build an aircraft only Boeing would build.
They won this competition once, they don't want to play a second time now that it's been re-rigged in favor of Boeing because a bunch of Congressmen are more concerned about the jobs in their districts than the quality of the equipment we provide to the men and women we send into harm's way. The priority for military acquisitions needs to be performance. Period. If we're sending someone to war, send them with the best equipment. If your priority is putting a bunch of people to work in Kansas instead of bringing the boys back home to Kansas from a war, you've got the wrong priorities.
The Pentagon-approved version of the story goes like this
Northrop Grumman and Airbus have threatened to withdraw from the competition for the multi-billion-dollar contract to build a new US military tanker aircraft, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
'The (Defense) Department regrets that Northrop-Grumman and Airbus have taken themselves out of the tanker competition and hope they will return when the final RFP (request for proposal) is issued,' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in a statement.
Defense officials were not prepared to change the requirements for the 35-billion-dollar contract to favor either the Airbus group or its aviation rival, Boeing, the official said.
'The Department has played this right down the middle and will continue to do so,' Whitman said.
'The Air Force tanker is a modified commercial airliner, and Boeing and Airbus make hundreds of such aircraft every year. Both companies can make a good tanker,' Whitman said."
By: Brant
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