Sun, Aug 09, 2009
House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Backs Down From
Strong Rhetoric
After months of posturing about splitting a potential
multi-billion dollar contract for new air-to-air refueling tankers
between Boeing and Airbus, Representative John Murtha has backed
down from his rhetoric and will apparently allow the Pentagon to
decide which tanker best suits its needs, or if the order should be
split.
A330 Tanker
Nowhere in the defense appropriations bill finally passed by the
full committee is language insisting on a split contract between
Boeing and Airbus. According to Defense News, the report language
includes vague terms like "the committee believes" and makes
references to "one or more contracts", not strong language
demanding each company be given a piece of the tanker contract.
Analysts said the committee could have used very straightforward
language telling the pentagon to split the contract.
Since it did not, David Berteau, a former Pentagon official who
is now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, said, "You can interpret the language both ways." But
Bertau's analysis is that the house is going to leave the final
decision up to Secretary Gates. Still, it "opens the door to a
split buy," he said.
B767 Tanker
The report also says that DoD should buy the tankers more
quickly than originally proposed, but does not direct that. "The
committee believes that it is in the best interest of the taxpayer
to pursue recapitalization at a rate of 36 aircraft per year vice
12 or 15 aircraft," according to the report. "This quantity will
allow for recapitalization in one-third the time and thus allow for
a rapid retirement of the current KC-135 aircraft."
DoD has already bid the replacement tankers twice, and both
times the contracts have been scuttled. EADS, working with Northrop
Grumman, has a tanker based on the Airbus A330 platform, while
Boeing had countered with a 767-based tanker. Boeing is now
proposing a tanker based on its 777 platform, which would have a
similar capacity to the A330 tanker.
The Senate will not work on its version of the Defense
Appropriations Bill until after the August recess.
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