Northrop Grumman is telling the world that it 'views any delay to the amended request for proposal for the tanker replacement program as harmful to the warfighter and that a delay will result in a direct escalation in cost to the government thereby harming American taxpayers.'

Northrop Grumman Statement

In Northrop Grumman's view of the history of this procurement and like procurements by the Defense Department, we can find no precedent whereby a post-Protest RFP Amendment permitted more than 60 days from release for submission of revised offers. In fact, many are less than a week. Given the long history of the KC-135 Replacement Procurement, which spans over six years to date, Northrop Grumman finds this additional time request disturbing given that the final Government Accountability Office Report that sustained the Protest was confined to only minor "Process" errors. Any delay in this RFP process will extend the time our warfighters will get badly needed new refueling aircraft by years.

Northrop Grumman continues in noting that, "The requirements of the new aerial refueling tanker were stated in the final RFP, which was released in January 2007. The time already being offered by the Defense Department, together with the six weeks since the Defense Department's announcement of its post-protest approach, is more than enough time for any necessary revisions to existing proposals. If one competitor decides it is now time to listen to their customer and fundamentally change their offer, that is their choice, but the warfighter and taxpayer should not have to bear the burden of their late-breaking change in business strategy. The Northrop Grumman KC-45 tanker won the competition on the merits of its superior capability. America needs a new tanker now and the Northrop Grumman KC-45 is ready now."

FMI: www.northropgrumman.com