WASHINGTON (AFP) — Senator Richard Shelby said Wednesday that the Pentagon has decided to re-bid on an expedited schedule a 35 billion dollar Air Force contract for refueling aircraft that had been awarded to Northrop Grumman.
"This is the best of all options," the Alabama senator said in a statement, adding that Defense Secretary Robert Gates would announce the new competition for the tanker contract on an expedited basis.
"The plan the Department of Defense has come up with is an appropriate solution to remedy the minor procedural flaws the GAO found in the initial award," Shelby said.
The General Accountability Office found "significant errors" in the way the air force evaluated competing bids by Northrop Grumman and Boeing and urged that it be reopened.
Gates scheduled a press conference for Tuesday to announce his decision on what to do next, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Northrop Grumman and its partner, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, EADS, were awarded the contract for 179 tankers planes on February 29.
It was a bitter blow to Boeing, which until now has been the military's sole supplier of air refueling aircraft.
The company filed a protest March 11, effectively freezing the contract.
The selection of EADS's modified Airbus 330 over Boeing's modified 767 aroused intense political controversy over the potential loss of jobs and prestige to a European aeronautics giant.
Shelby is from a state that stands to gain jobs if the contract goes to Northrop Grumman. An Airbus production plant is slated to go up in Mobile, Alabama.
"It is vitally important that members of Congress support this expeditious path forward that not only satisfies the recommendations offered by GAO, but also ensures that the air force's urgent and compelling need to field a tanker is met as quickly as possible," Shelby said.
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