The US Department of Defense today re-opened the tanker competition by issuing a draft request for proposals to the two bidders and setting a goal for contract award by Christmas Eve.
Rivals Northrop Grumman and Boeing will face three major changes in the new solicitation from the terms used by the US Air Force to select Northrop’s KC-30B aircraft. That decision was overturned on 19 June by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), citing “significiant” errors in the USAF evaluation.
DOD has taken over management of the competition and appointed an entirely new source selection advisory committee as a result of the GAO’s findings.
The key changes for the new evaluation include giving official credit for having the capacity to offload more fuel, the decoupling of maintenance and fuel cost estimates from acquisition costs and extending the lifecycle period from 25 years to 40 years.
Northrop is teamed with EADS North America to offer the KC-30B, a variant of the Airbus A330-200 converted freighter. Boeing is offering an all-new version of the 767-200.
As the larger aircraft in the competition, the KC-30B will gain an advantage in the evaluation by having more capacity to carry fuel than the KC-767. One of Boeing’s options to counter this advantage is to change its offer to the KC-777, although this could significantly drive up development and acquisition costs compared to its original bid.
Extending the lifecycle period by 15 years, however, could pose a disadvantage for the larger KC-30B, which consumes more fuel than the KC-767.
But this issue could be mitigated by the decision to decouple acquisition and lifecycle cost estimates in the new evaluation, with estimates for near-term acquisition costs receiving more consideration.
The competitors will have one week to review the draft RFP and discuss any issues with DOD officials, said Shay Assad, director of defence procurement and acquisitions policy.
DOD intends to issue a final RFP by mid-August, with proposals due by 1 October.
“We gave the offerors originally 60 days to submit proposals so this is about the same amount of time,” Assad said.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
