US tanker contract annoucement this week

[+Typhoid 231]

I do understand where Boeing is coming from. If you're told you'll be judged by a certain set of conditions but are actually judged by a DIFFERENT set of conditions (which is all the GAO really seems to have said--that there was inconsistency), that's not really on the up-and-up. As far as which tanker is actually the better way to go, I won't say, I leave that as an exercise for the student.

 

you are absolutely correct on that point if that is what happened. But there is quite a bit more concerning Boeing's part in this fiasco. They choose to bid an old plane with less capacity than what was called for in the RFP.

 

In Boeing's defense there was another point on the runway specs to be used as well where they initially said the runaways to be used would be limited in size and load capacity, which the Boeing plane meets and the Airbus does not, then they changed that during source selection which enabled the Airbus to be more effective. I don't know if that is true or not but that has been alleged by the Boeing team and disputed by Northrup Grumman. So certainly grounds there to at least re-open and review the bids.

 

We shall see.

[JediMaster 451]

Of course, locally this is big news since they work on the JSTARS planes here and the tankers would likely get some of their avionics integrated here, too. If Boeing eventually gets it, all the locals get screwed.