The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled plans to relaunch a competition for a contract on a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers that pits US aviation giant Boeing against Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS).
Two previous attempts to award the multibillion-dollar contract collapsed amid scandal and bitter disputes between Boeing and its rivals Northrop Grumman and Airbus’ parent firm, EADS.
Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn and Ashton Carter, who oversees US arms purchases, were due to brief reporters on the competition later on Thursday, officials said. A draft request for proposals would be posted online yesterday, a Pentagon document said.
In reviewing bids for the contract, the Pentagon decided it would discount a trade dispute between Boeing and Airbus before the WTO as the cases could drag on for years without resolution, the document said.
“We are not able to take account of these claims” in the competition, the document said. But if the winner of the contract was fined by the WTO, the cost would not be passed on to the taxpayer, it said.
Defense firms and members of Congress would be invited to submit comments on the draft, with a final decision on the tanker deal due next summer, it said.
The competition will be designed to avoid the problems that plagued previous efforts, with more concrete, defined criteria for the aircraft and a more transparent process, it said.
The contract for 179 aircraft to replace the aging fleet of mid-air refueling tankers has been estimated to be worth about US$35 billion.
Both Boeing and Northrop Grumman have strong supporters in Congress who in the past have heavily criticized how the deal was handled by the Pentagon.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week announced he had restored authority to the US Air Force to select the winner of the tanker competition.
Gates stripped the Air Force of its acquisition authority on the tanker project last year after the investigative arm of the US Congress — the Government Accountability Office (GAO) — found rival proposals were not evaluated properly.
The contract was awarded in February last year to Northrop and EADS, the parent company of Boeing’s commercial rival Airbus.
But the deal was withdrawn in July last year after Boeing successfully appealed to the GAO.
In 2004, the Pentagon was forced to drop plans to buy and lease tanker aircraft from Boeing after two senior executives at the firm were convicted in a conflict-of-interest scandal.
One of the convicted Boeing officials had been a high-level US Air Force procurement officer.
Gates vowed last week to secure a deal for the tanker promptly while avoiding the problems that have plagued previous attempts.
Boeing has said it was looking forward to seeing the terms of the draft request for proposal and argued it could offer aircraft at a lower cost than its competitor.
EADS chief executive Louis Gaullois, in a Sept. 8 interview in the French newspaper La Tribune, said of the planned tanker bidding: “Our objective is to be in the competition. We are totally determined to be in the running, unless it appears that the request for proposal is biased.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: People who do not comply with the ban after a spoken warning would be reported to the police, the airport company said on Friday Taoyuan International Airport Corp on Friday announced that riding on vehicles, including scooter-suitcases (also known as “scootcases”), bicycles, scooters and skateboards, is prohibited in the airport’s terminals. Those using such vehicles should manually pull them or place them on luggage trolleys, the company said in a Facebook post. The ban intends to maintain order and protect travelers’ safety, as the airport often sees large crowds of people, it said, adding that it has stepped up publicity for the regulation, and those who do not comply after a spoken warning would be reported to the police. The company yesterday said that
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS: ‘No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path,’ William Lai said, urging progress ‘without looking back’ President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged parties across the political divide to democratically resolve conflicts that have plagued domestic politics within Taiwan’s constitutional system. In his first New Year’s Day address since becoming president on May 20 last year, Lai touched on several issues, including economic and security challenges, but a key emphasis was on the partisan wrangling that has characterized his first seven months in office. Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism into today’s democracy and that democracy is the future, Lai said. “No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path for Taiwan,” he said. “The only choice
QUIET START: Nearly a week after applications opened, agencies did not announce or promote the program, nor did they explain how it differed from other visitor visas Taiwan has launched a six-month “digital nomad visitor visa” program for foreign nationals from its list of visa-exempt countries who meet financial eligibility criteria and provide proof of work contracts. To apply, foreign nationals must either provide proof that they have obtained a digital nomad visa issued by another country or demonstrate earnings based on age brackets, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said. Applicants aged 20 to 29 must show they earned an annual salary of at least US$20,000 or its equivalent in one of the past two years, while those aged 30 or older must provide proof they earned US$40,000 in
UNITY MESSAGE: Rather than focusing on what Trump said on the campaign trail about Taiwan, Taipei should be willing to engage with the US, Pompeo said Taiwan plays a key role in Washington’s model of deterrence against China, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Taipei yesterday. During US president-elect Donald Trump’s first term, “we had developed what we believe was a pretty effective model of deterrence against adversaries who wanted to undermine the set of rules and values that the people of Taiwan and the people of the US hold dear,” Pompeo said at a forum organized by the Formosa Republican Association. “Succeeding in continuing to build this model will not solely rest at the feet of president Trump and his team,
RSS