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| Pentagon to extend tanker deadline 60 days |
| 2010-04-01 |
| (Reuters) - The Pentagon will extend the deadline for bids on its huge refueling aircraft contract by 60 days if Europe's EADS formally pledges to bid against Boeing Co. The announcement on Wednesday came a day after President Barack Obama vowed to run a fair and open competition for the new aerial tankers during a news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. EADS said it would consider the 60-day extension but also said it had told U.S. officials it needed a 90-day extension to the May 10 deadline, the minimum time needed to prepare a bid. You should have a bid in the can, eh boys? Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters that a decision was expected from EADS within the next several weeks, but stressed that the U.S. Defense Department did not plan to change any requirements in the competition besides the deadline. "It is not uncommon to grant reasonable extensions in competitions of this sort, and we consider 60 days to be reasonable in this case," Morrell said. But Boeing backers in Congress blasted the decision saying the Pentagon was bending the rules to placate Europe in the contest that could be worth as much as $50 billion. EADS is deciding whether to bid alone after its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman, pulled out of the race saying the contest terms clearly favored the smaller Boeing 767-based tanker over the A330 built by EADS' Airbus unit. EADS and Northrop won the previous U.S. Air Force tanker contest in February 2008, but the Pentagon canceled that deal after government auditors upheld a Boeing protest. Obama had assured French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday that the competition would be completely transparent, open and fair. Sarkozy, saying he trusted Obama, said EADS would bid if the terms of the competition were fair. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Its a fig leaf, they rigged it for Boeing. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2010-04-01 08:38 |