By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. auditors urged the Air Force Wednesdayto rerun its marathon, $35 billion competition for refueling aircraft,upholding a protest by losing bidder Boeing Co.
The Government Accountability Office found the Air Force made "anumber of significant errors that could have affected the outcome ofwhat was a close competition between" Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp.
"We therefore sustained Boeing’s protest," Michael Golden, head of the a GAO bid protest unit, said in a statement.
Northrop was teamed with EADS, parent of rival passenger-jet maker Airbus. EADS had no immediate comment.
Boeing shares briefly spiked up 2 percent on the news, but paredthose gains to less than 1 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.Northrop shares were down 1.4 percent in mid-afternoon trade.
"The Air Force is aware of the Government Accountability Office’sreport and will review the findings and recommendations. We willrelease a statement this afternoon," said Air Force spokeswoman Maj.Dayan Araujo.
The Air Force "conducted misleading and unequal discussions withBoeing" by telling the company it had fully satisfied a key performancecriteria, then later determining that Boeing had only partially met theobjective, the GAO said.
The GAO’s recommendation to the Air Force punctuated a fight overwhat is likely to be one of the richest contracts in Pentagon history.
Lawmakers from states where Boeing has manufacturing plants were delighted with the GAO ruling.
"I am not surprised that the GAO identified significant errors inthe selection process. The Air Force bought a tanker that doesn’t meettheir needs and has been waging a PR campaign ever since," Sen. PattyMurray, Democrat of Washington, said in a statement.
On February 29, the Air Force picked the team of Northrop GrummanCorp and EADS to build 179 midair refuelers over the next 15 years toreplace its aging KC-135 tankers.
Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at the Fairfax,Virginia-based Teal Group consultancy, said the GAO decision providedammunition to Boeing’s political backers, who are seeking to overturnthe award.
Given a change in Air Force leadership earlier this month and theGAO findings, "Boeing has a respectable chance moving forward,"Aboulafia said in an email. Boeing has proposed a tanker based on its767 aircraft; Northrop offered a modified Airbus A330.
Douglas Harned, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, was surprised by the GAO’s ruling.
"It is a big positive for Boeing. It remains to be seen how thecompetition ultimately plays out," he said in a telephone interview.
Boeing hopes to stop EADS from establishing a U.S. productionfacility that would make Airbus in effect a second U.S.-based producerof large aircraft.
Los Angeles-based Northrop already has invited the media to aplanned June 28 groundbreaking ceremony at a Mobile, Alabama, sitewhere it would modify Airbus A330 jets into the KC-45 tanker, if itscontract stands.
An earlier Air Force plan to lease and then buy 100 Boeing 767s as tankers collapsed four years ago after Sen. John McCain, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, tarred it as a taxpayer "ripoff."
(Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)
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