Found this in my morning news briefs-interesting Washington Post Editorial.
Air Force Adrift
One U.S. military service has yet to adjust to the wars of this century.
......."Now the
Government Accountability Office has found that the Air Force bungled one of its largest and most important procurement contracts, for the second time. A GAO report issued Wednesday said that officials "made a number of significant errors" that could have skewed the outcome of a competition between
Boeing and
Northrop Grumman to build tanker planes used for aerial refueling. We haven't had much sympathy for the public relations campaign Boeing has waged since losing the $40 billion contract award in February, a campaign that has focused in part on rallying protectionist and nationalist sentiment against Northrop Grumman's partner, the European parent of
Airbus. Yet the GAO found that Boeing was correct in arguing that the Air Force failed to judge the tanker competition according to the criteria it had established. The service also conceded that it made mistakes in judging the overall cost of the two bids that, when corrected, made Boeing the low bidder...........Though not binding, the GAO decision should compel the Air Force to make a third try at choosing a tanker supplier. A first run, in which Boeing was chosen to build and lease tankers, was blown up by a corruption investigation led by Sen.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) that eventually led to the imprisonment of two Boeing officials. Mr. McCain was right to press for a real and fair competition for the tanker contract; the problem was the Air Force's mismanagement of the subsequent process.".......
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...v=rss_opinions