08:51 GMT, September 11, 2008 Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has terminated the current $35 billion tanker competition. This move will help Boeing to develop a new offer while Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS, which had already a ready made plane in this competition, have to sit and wait. While International media predominantly criticise the Pentagon’s decision calling it a “farce” or the “result of a failed system of procurement and acquisitions,” some American experts say that this decision could be seen as “hard but fair”. It would help the next administration to choose between two strong competitors and their best developed products. However, time is a crucial matter in all this discussion. The U.S. Air Force tanker programme is far behind schedule and will already leave a huge lack of air-refuelling capability for the U.S. Air Force in the near future since the average age for the KC-135 tanker is 48 years and the average age of all tankers in the fleet is over 44 years — nearly four times the age of the U.S. commercial fleet.

International press commentaries on the DoD’s tanker decision:

-- Handelsblatt (Germany) --

The procurement of the U.S.' biggest defence contract becomes a farce and it seems clear that Boeing is behind it. Their aim is clear: The U.S. defence Goliath has the inferior aircraft. Boeing plays for time, waiting that the next administration will award the contract to the regional bidder while economical crises generate increasing pressure at the domestic political front.

That is nothing else than industrial policy, in which the French are also quite experienced. However U.S. officials should have the courage to confess to these fact instead of hiding behind a procurement that seems to be changed as often as necessary to call Boeing the winner.

The tanker contract became a political issue. The time has come to bring this farce to an end.


-- New York Times (U.S.) --

Mr. Gates’s decision is an about-face from a plan he announced in July to restart a stalled bidding process between the two companies and make a selection before the next administration, perhaps as early as this December. Once the July announcement was made, Boeing began a highly visible lobbying campaign to delay the competition, even going so far as to threaten to withdraw from it completely.


-- Times Magazine (U.S.) --

The decision to delay the award until after the next president takes office in January is a victory for Boeing Co., which had threatened to back out of the competition because of a timeline and terms that it said would unfairly hinder its chances.


-- Financial Times (U.K.) --

EADS suffered a fresh setback on Wednesday in its attempt to break into the lucrative US defence market. The Pentagon’s decision is only the latest turn in a seven-year saga to replace the fleet of tankers, some of which date back to the Eisenhower administration of the 1950s. Over the years, tanker-related scandals have cost several careers and sent a senior Boeing executive and air force procurement official to jail.


-- Washington Post (U.S.) --

In many analysts' eyes the decision represents fundamental problems with the Pentagon's ability to buy major weapons systems. "The Air Force and the DOD have spent over six years to reach this point, and what do they have to show?" said David J. Berteau, a senior defence analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"They have three failed procurements," he said. "They've punted to the next administration with no clear plan of how they're going to go forward. . . . By any measure, that's a failed system of procurement and acquisitions."


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