US: Air Force crashes out

The epic battle between Boeing and a Northrop Grumman/EADS consortium for the 40 billion dollar US Air Force mid-air refuelling tanker contract heats up in Congress again on Tuesday.  But while media attention has focused on the furious Boeing-Northrop lobbying effort, and the involvement of EU-based EADS, the Air Force will emerge from the process as the biggest loser – even if it ultimately secures a relatively cost-effective and capable aerial tanker.

Henry Waxman, the Democratic party chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, will scrutinise the bidding process by interviewing acting US Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Last month, a GAO report found that the Air Force had violated its own bidding procedures, and held “misleading and unequal discussions” with Boeing representatives -- meaning that the company did not enjoy a level playing field against Northrop, which was initially awarded the contract.

 

Another do-over

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced on July 9 that the contract would be reviewed, and potentially overturned, by December.  But the Air Force will not have a role in the outcome -- the probe is to be carried out by Undersecretary of Defense John Young, who will examine the eight elements of the process that were criticised in the GAO report. The GAO did not rule on the merits of the respective bids, and the Northrop/EADS consortium may still have the upper hand in technical terms.  However, if Boeing substitutes its 777 airframe for the outdated 767 model featured in its original proposal, the battle could be very competitive.  To assuage hurt feelings and placate the two US firms’ congressional supporters, the Air Force could ultimately decide to split the contract somehow, awarding both a share.

Air Force tailspin

This fiasco is just the latest in a series of setbacks for the Air Force, which is facing particularly intense competition from the other US military services for funding and prestige:

• Druyan corruption case  The Air Force’s initial scheme to secure a new aerial tanker fleet crashed out amid scandal in 2002.  An investigation spearheaded by the now-presumptive Republican nominee for president, Senator John McCain, revealed that a top Air Force civilian official had steered the contract to Boeing, in exchange for lucrative jobs for herself, her daughter, and her son-in-law.  The official, Darleen Druyan, ultimately went to prison, and the tanker-leasing plan was invalidated.  Boeing’s CFO was fired, and the company’s CEO felt obliged to resign.  The Air Force’s desire to appear scrupulously fair during the current Boeing-Northrop clash over the tanker contract, following the Druyan case, may have unfairly biased it against Boeing’s bid.

• Gates cleans house.  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently fired the Air Force chief of staff, General Michael Moseley, and the civilian Air Force secretary, Michael Wynne, over lapses in nuclear weapons safety.  The most notorious incident occurred in 2007, when an Air Force B-52 bomber flew from a base in North Dakota to Louisiana -- mistakenly loaded with six nuclear weapons.

• Army turf grab.  The US Army in July 2007 began operating its own aerial surveillance force in Iraq, following a series of complaints from Army officers that Air Force reconnaissance efforts were insufficient.  The group, known as ‘Task Force Odin’, includes small civilian aircraft and remotely controlled drones.  The Army’s move has apparently received at least tacit support from top civilian leaders at the Pentagon, even though it encroaches on Air Force turf.

The Air Force’s principal trouble is that, as a service, it has a limited role in Iraq and Afghanistan relative to the Army and the Marine Corps -- and even the Navy.  Coupled with Gates’s emphasis on avoiding ‘next war-itis’ and finishing the job in Iraq, this means that the Air Force’s procurement and personnel budgets may be in for a squeeze.  The service is great at delivering the ‘shock and awe’ useful during the attack on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003, and the strategic bombing that won the Kosovo conflict in 1999 -- but the ‘war on terror’ has left the Air Force groping for a mission.  Next year’s defence budget is likely to make the boys (and girls) in blue feel blue indeed.