General: No More Tanker Delays

WASHINGTON -- A top U.S. Air Force general is warning that a further delay in overhauling the Eisenhower-era aerial-refueling-tanker fleet could leave the service flying some of its aircraft for decades longer.

The comments by Gen. Arthur Lichte, who heads the service's Air Mobility Command, come as the Pentagon considers whether to agree to Chicago-based Boeing Co.'s demand that it delay a final request for bids for the $35 billion tanker program by six months, effectively kicking the decision on the contract to the next administration. He urged that the Pentagon stick to its plan to complete the bidding process on the lucrative defense contract by the end of the year.

Lichte noted that if the tanker program is delayed another year or two, some of the aircraft in the fleet could be more than 80 years old by the time they are retired.

"It's unconscionable that we're asking people to fly in combat in 50-year-old airframes," Lichte told the Defense Writers Group.

Boeing officials have said they may not compete for the tanker contract if the Pentagon does not give them the additional time to prepare a new bid. Pentagon officials want to complete the bidding process by the end of the year, a new timeline that was unveiled after the Government Accountability Office this summer called on defense officials to rebid the contract.

At the same time, Pentagon officials are under pressure from members of Congress with Boeing manufacturing plants in their backyards to award Boeing the contract.

The Boeing demand for additional time, revealed last month, is the latest twist in a drawn-out battle between Boeing and its competitor, a partnership of Northrop Grumman Corp. and the France-based parent company of Airbus SAS, for one of the richest contracts in Pentagon history.

The Pentagon said in July that it would rebid the contract to build 179 new tankers, initially awarded to the Northrop team in February, in light of flaws in the process cited by the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress.

In upholding a Boeing protest, GAO investigators criticized Air Force evaluators for rewarding Northrop's proposed jet for carrying more fuel, cargo and passengers than required, after stating no extra credit would be granted to aircraft that exceeded the government's performance guidelines.

In the preliminary request for proposals released in August after the audit, the Pentagon, which took over the bidding, made it clear it favors a plane with a greater capacity to haul fuel and cargo, such as the Airbus A330, the jet proposed by Northrop.

On Wednesday, Lichte praised both Boeing and Northrop, but stressed that he needs a new tanker sooner rather than later. The current fleet of KC-135 tankers has an average age of 47, and they need 10 hours of maintenance for every hour in the air.