Lawmaker eases demand for split tanker deal

House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha, D-Pa., said Wednesday he would likely attach language to his panel's version of the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill to encourage the Air Force to buy two types of aerial refueling tankers.

Murtha has long advocated awarding the lucrative contract to the two aerospace rivals now vying for it, but he indicated he would stop short of requiring the Pentagon to pursue the split-buy strategy for the tankers.

Under language he is drafting, Murtha said the decision ultimately would be up to the Pentagon, which has steadfastly opposed buying more than one type of tanker to replace the Eisenhower-era KC-135s the Air Force now flies.

"I'll leave it up to the [Defense] secretary ... to make a decision whether one company goes or two companies go," he said during a breakfast with reporters.

Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, the European consortium behind Airbus, won the $35 billion deal last year to build 179 tankers for the Air Force. But the Government Accountability Office upheld a protest filed by the Boeing Co., the losing bidder, and the Pentagon canceled the contract.

Pentagon officials plan to restart competition for the procurement program this year, in the hopes of awarding a contract to one of the firms next year.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said awarding the contract to both companies would only "guarantee everybody a piece of the action [and] any leverage that we might have in terms of cost control disappears." Other senior officials have said buying two tanker models would cost billions of dollars more than buying ones from a single design.

But several lawmakers, including Murtha, have said they believe that continuing competition between the two teams would ultimately drive down procurement costs. They also have argued that, without a split buy, the losing bidder would protest the award - further delaying plans for fielding new tankers.

"I don't think they'll have tankers" if the Pentagon awards the contract to one firm, Murtha said. "I don't think they'll be able to get by the protest."

Murtha's panel is expected to mark up the fiscal 2010 spending bill after Congress returns from its weeklong July 4 recess. But Murtha said he has yet to decide on the fate of several key programs, including the F-22 Raptor fighter jet.

The Pentagon requested no funding for the F-22 in its fiscal 2010 request, opting to end production of the stealthy fighters with the four planes in the fiscal 2009 wartime supplemental spending bill.

Murtha said he is weighing how many F-22s the Air Force would need, and whether future threats could require more than the 187 planned.

"In the end, we may not be able to find the $3.2 billion we would need for 20 airplanes" in fiscal 2010, Murtha said. "But we'll try to make the decision based on what we think is the threat down the road."

He also raised concerns about shutting down the F-22 production line as Japan continues to express interest in buying the Raptors.

Current law bars exports of the Raptor. But the House Armed Services Committee approved language in its version of the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill that would require the Pentagon to send Congress a report on potential sales of the aircraft to Japan, including the costs of developing an exportable version of the aircraft.