McCain Helped Derail Previous Boeing Bid

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with a series of questions about the criteria that will be used to determine a replacement for the Air Force's aging fleet of KC-135 tankers.

An investigation by McCain's office was a factor when the Pentagon scrapped a plan to lease or buy 100 tankers based on the Boeing 767 platform worth $23.5 billion. Reuters reports that, in his letter, McCain questions whether the rules for the latest competition favor the smaller Boeing aircraft over the EADS/Northrop tanker based on the Airbus A330.

Northrop says the rules for this competition are written to favor the Boeing aircraft.

Boeing, on the other hand, wants the Pentagon to consider billions of dollars in subsidies from European governments for Airbus, which the World Trade Organization said were illegal and give the European aircraft a competitive advantage.

Reuters says in his letter, McCain said he wants to know how the program will assess development and integration risk, how the Air Force decided to pare some 800 mandatory requirements down to 373 mandatory and 93 non-mandatory, and how he intends to assure "robust oversight" of the process.

FMI: http://mccain.senate.gov