Air Force Contract

[sometimes a great notion]

They over turned the contract today awarding Airbus the contract. They will start rebidding soon, Boeing had announced earlier that they would stop building tankers if it was not overturned. So it is going to be interesting to see what happens next.

[Eric Johnson]

That's not entirely true. The GAO has recommended re-bidding. They don't overturn a contract and force the re-bid.

Now the Air Force and DoD will look at the recommendations and at their process and make a decision about how to proceed.

Candidly, I think that Boeing shouldn't have been able to submit a bid as a result of their shennanigans before. I also think that all the noise about "buy at home" would mean that we'd sole source large air frame procurement. Afterall, Boeing is the only one left unless we're going to start using F-16s for tankers. If we're going to have competition, we have to accept that maybe our favorite son isn't going to win. If we can't stand the idea of a company other than Boeing getting the contract, we ought to sole source the procurement. It's patently stupid to argue for open competiton so long as Boeing gets the contract.

Eric

[HuntsmanTollers]

Eric,

I don't know about the shennanigans before, but the shennanigans with this bid is what caused them not to be awarded the contract. From what I understand, less capability and more cost. I can't understand why they weren't the winning bid.