The U.S. Government Accountability Office was expected to issue its judgment within days on Boeing’s formal protest of the Air Force’s decision to award the multibillion-dollar aerial refueling tanker contract to the Northrop Grumman and EADS team, according to reporting by CNBC correspondent Jane Wells, with the ruling expected by that Thursday.
Wells reported that although the Air Force is not technically bound by the GAO’s findings, the current political climate would make it difficult for the service to disregard the watchdog agency’s conclusions, whichever way they fall. The GAO review followed Boeing’s formal protest, which rested on two central arguments: first, that the Air Force effectively favored the larger Northrop Grumman/EADS aircraft without adequately communicating that size was a priority in the competition, and second, that European government subsidies to EADS gave the company an unfair cost advantage that made it harder for Boeing to compete on a level playing field.
The outcome carries direct consequences for Mobile. If the GAO sides with Boeing, the Air Force would likely be pushed to reopen bidding on the contract, which could put the planned Northrop Grumman/EADS assembly line at Brookley Field in jeopardy. If the GAO instead rules in favor of the existing award, it would clear another procedural hurdle for the Mobile-linked project, though the fight would not necessarily be over. Even a favorable GAO ruling would still leave Northrop Grumman and EADS facing pushback in Congress from lawmakers aligned with Boeing, including Washington Rep. Norm Dicks and Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt, both of whom represent regions with a direct stake in seeing the contract steered back toward Boeing.
Despite the uncertainty still hanging over the final outcome, word had already spread in Mobile that local organizers were planning a parade to celebrate the tanker win, regardless of how the GAO ultimately ruled. The willingness to celebrate ahead of a final resolution reflects how significant the stakes of the tanker decision had become for the region, where officials and residents alike viewed the prospective assembly line as a marquee win in a broader run of economic development successes along the central Gulf Coast.
The tanker competition, which could be worth up to $40 billion over its full run, has drawn sustained national attention because of the jobs and industrial capacity at stake for whichever region ultimately hosts the winning manufacturer’s assembly operations. For Mobile, landing the Northrop Grumman/EADS assembly line was seen as a potential catalyst for thousands of aerospace jobs and a validation of the region’s yearslong push to rebuild its industrial and manufacturing base.