Northrop Grumman issued a statement Tuesday from Paul Meyer, who is leading its effort to capture the Air Force’s KC-X tanker contract, expressing the company’s concern that it is at a competitive disadvantage going into the new round of the tanker competition. Northrop is upset that rival Boeing was provided with pricing information on Northrop’s tanker offering during the previous round of the competition, which ended barely out of the gate due to an escalating war of words and political wrangling. This release of price data reportedly occurred after Northrop won the KC-X competition in February 2008 and Boeing was debriefed on why it lost. Meyer said Northrop will continue to work with the Air Force “to fully resolve this issue.” Continue
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.