US aerospace giant Boeing may not submit a bid in the next round of competition for the massive US Air Force tanker refuelling contract unless they are given more time to re-work their proposal, the Washington Post reported Friday.
Boeing spokesman Dan Beck told the Post that his company needs six months to present a new bid because the company believes the requirements now call for an plane that can carry more fuel than their original proposal. If they are not given more time "one of the options we would seriously consider is that we would possibly" not bid at all, Beck told the Post.
The Pentagon contract for 35 billion dollars is for 179 aircraft, the initial phase of a fleet replacement project worth some 100 billion dollars over the next 30 years. Congressional auditors forced the Pentagon in June to re-bid a contract that had been awarded in February to Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS.
"If we can't have a competitive proposal, there doesn't seem to be a lot of value in us going through this process if the best we can do is come up with a proposal that falls short of what the [Department of Defence] is looking for," Beck told the newspaper. The GAO in June upheld a challenge of the decision by Boeing, saying it found "significant errors" in the air force's evaluation of the two bids.
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