Oversight committee will examine Air Force tanker decision
About a week after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the Air Force “made a number of significant errors” during the course of the bid process, the oversight committee announced plans for a July 15 hearing in Washington, D.C., to examine the Air Force’s decision.
At press time, Acting U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro was the only witness scheduled to testify.
GAO last week unveiled the key findings of its investigation, which was prompted by a protest filed by Boeing, the runner-up in the competition for the lucrative contract. As a result of its findings, GAO called on the Air Force to reopen the bid process.
The Defense Department on Feb. 29 announced that the team of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and EADS, the French-German partner of Airbus, had been chosen over Boeing to build up to 179 new KC-45A tankers. The tankers are to replace hundreds of aging KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft that were introduced in the late 1950s.
For more, read “GAO: Air Force made ‘significant errors’ in tanker contract decision.”