Air Force may delay contract award for refueling tankers

A senior Air Force official Thursday left open the possibility that the much-anticipated contract award for a fleet of aerial refueling tankers could slip beyond late February. Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, the Air Force's senior acquisition officer, acknowledged there is a reasonable chance the Air Force could decide on the high-stakes contract award in March or later.

"This is not a football game when you get four quarters of 15 minutes and at the end it's the end," Hoffman said. "It's whatever it takes to get through this process and, as we work through it, we'll take whatever amount of time it takes to get to the right answer."

The Air Force, Hoffman added, is not "going to hurry our way through and come up with the wrong answer."

The contract for 179 planes to replace the Air Force's aging KC-135 tanker fleet is worth $40 billion and has sparked a bitter battle between incumbent Boeing Co. and a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, the European consortium that owns Airbus. Boeing has offered a modified 767 aircraft, while the Northrop-EADS team's offering is based on the Airbus 330 airframe.

The competitors, who have been sparring over the value and capabilities of each other's planes, had initially expected the Air Force to award the contract this year. The Air Force delayed the decision until late February.

"This is about doing the right thing for the war-fighter and for the taxpayer that gets the best value decision out of this," Hoffman said. "This is not so that bookies in Las Vegas can start wagering bets."

Hoffman said the Air Force may eventually develop its next-generation long-range bomber as an unmanned aircraft. The service plans to make the bomber, which they hope to put in the field in 2018, a manned aircraft, but service officials still are discussing the possibility of fielding a drone down the road.

"Initially we think it will probably be manned [and] maybe a second or third increment might end up being unmanned," Hoffman said. "There may be scenarios and threats out there that you don't want to put people at risk."

Meanwhile, Hoffman said the fiscal 2009 budget could include funding to begin shutting down production lines on the F-22 Raptor fighter jet. The Air Force stands by its request for 381 of the fighter jets, but plans are to pay for only 183, Hoffman said. He called any decision on whether to buy more F-22s "pre-decisional" until the budget, which will go to the Capitol Hill in February, solidifies.

Should the Pentagon opt to end F-22 production at 183 fighters, it would not immediately affect Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Ga., plant, where the last plane will be assembled at the end of 2011. But it would affect second- and third-tier subcontractors, Hoffman said.