Mobile Watched 2008 Tanker Competition as Boeing Weighed Its Next Step

In August 2008, reports that Boeing might leave the Air Force’s aerial-refueling tanker competition drew keen attention in Mobile, where the rival Northrop Grumman/EADS proposal was expected to have a major local economic impact.

In February 2008, the Air Force selected the Northrop Grumman team, which had partnered with the European aerospace company EADS, the parent of Airbus, and proposed building its tankers at a facility in Mobile. Boeing filed a formal protest. In June 2008, the Government Accountability Office upheld a series of Boeing’s complaints about the evaluation, and the Defense Department reopened the competition under a revised request for proposals.

In an archived local news interview, Boeing spokesperson Dan Beck did not give a definite answer on the company’s plans. He said a decision on its path forward would be premature, and that the company remained committed to competing under what it viewed as a fair process.

U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner told the station he did not believe Boeing would withdraw, saying the talk of walking away was better understood as a negotiating strategy aimed at getting Defense Department officials to revise the draft request for proposals.

The station reported that Boeing and Northrop Grumman had met with Defense Department officials about the draft request for proposals. At the time, a final request for proposals was expected within days, bids were due in early October, and a decision was anticipated in December.

This is a historical account of the competition at that stage.

How the round ended

The schedule described in August did not hold. On Sept. 10, 2008, before bids were submitted, Defense Secretary Robert Gates canceled the solicitation, saying there was not enough time left in the Bush administration to complete a fair competition. The contract was eventually awarded to Boeing in February 2011, after a new competition.