Pentagon set to release new tanker bidding process

The Pentagon is expected to release its draft request Wednesday for new bids for a controversial contract to build tankers that has fueled a lobbying war between Boeing and a team of Northrop Grumman and EADS North America.

The draft request for bids will give companies a sense of how the Pentagon is responding to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that sustained Boeing’s protest of the Air Force’s decision earlier this year to award the contract to Northrop Grumman.

{mosads}Pentagon officials have said that they would amend the initial request for proposals to account for the GAO’s recommendations. Details of the amended request for proposals were not readily available.

Companies will have a chance to comment on the draft request before the Pentagon issues its actual bidding request. The companies are expected to turn in their comments by Sunday afternoon, an industry source said. Face-to-face meetings between company representatives and Pentagon officials to discuss the draft will start on Tuesday.

Pentagon legislative liaisons are scheduled to brief the House and Senate defense authorizing and appropriations committees this morning. The Pentagon’s director of defense procurement and acquisitions policy, Shay Assad, will hold a briefing about the details this afternoon.

This would be the third time the Air Force has tried to replace its aging midair refueling tankers.

The decision to award Northrop and EADS the contract prompted congressional uproar that the Air Force was outsourcing U.S. jobs and damaging national security. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, Boeing’s biggest rival in the aircraft market.