Sun, Jun 15, 2008
Company Challenges Award Of Ongoing Maintenance To Boeing
Alabama Aircraft Industries, Inc. announced late last week the
US Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest filed by
the company on March 11 challenging a recent decision regarding
ongoing maintenance of the US Air Force fleet of KC-135 air
tankers.
Based in Birmingham, AL, AAII performs maintenance and
modification of aircraft for the US Government including the KC-135
as well as aircraft for foreign and domestic commercial
customers.
In its protest, AAII was challenging the selection of Boeing
over AAII for a billion dollar contract to maintain the Air Force's
fleet of KC-135 tankers. As recently as December 27, 2007 and
February 1, the GAO had issued decisions finding that the Air
Force's selection of Boeing was flawed.
AAII President Ron Aramini issued a statement explaining, "While
we are disappointed with the GAO's latest decision, we fully intend
to continue to press our case until the Air Force has conducted a
full and fair evaluation of proposals. We believe that a proper
evaluation would result in the selection of AAII as the highest
quality and lowest cost source for the maintenance of the Air
Force's KC-135 fleet."
The KC-135 Stratotanker is currently the oldest airframe still
in use by the Air Force. The recently announced KC-45 aerial
refueling aircraft awarded to a Northrop Grumman /EADS partnership
in February is set to augment and eventually replace the KC-135 in
service. With the first KC-135 was delivered in June of 1957 and
the last one was delivered to the Air Force in 1965, the average
KC-135 airframe in service is nearly 50 years old.
Despite the new tanker announcement, the KC-135 is slated to
remain a part of the fleet through 2040, thus requiring ongoing
maintenance contracted services.
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