Will cost determine which tanker is picked?

[unhappycamper]

Will cost determine which tanker is picked?
By Erik Holmes - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 18, 2007 15:25:30 EDT

The Air Force and some key lawmakers may be on different pages when it comes to selecting a replacement for the KC-135 tanker.

The issue is over the importance of price in evaluating bids by Boeing and a Northrop Grumman-EADS team for the roughly $40 billion contract to acquire 179 planes.

An Air Force document distributed to competitors for the new tanker contract appears to focus on different criteria than the Senate did in its version of the defense spending bill, and lawmakers control the service’s ability to buy the planes.

The authors of the Senate bill want the Air Force to focus on price, but the Air Force considers price only the fourth most important factor, according to a chart the Air Force provided to bidders during the summer. The chart, first reported by Reuters, lists mission capability, proposal risk and past performance — in that order — as the three most important factors in evaluating the bids.

Cost is listed as the fourth most important factor, equal to “integrated fleet air refueling assessment,” which the Air Force said includes aircraft characteristics such as parking footprint, tanker fuel capacity, takeoff performance and fuel consumption.

The chart also states clearly that the four nonprice factors “when combined, are significantly more important” than cost.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/10/airforce_tanker_selection_071018w/



uhc comment: Forgetting the fact that we're killing the planet (and the people who live on it), I think cost should be a little higher in the evaluation criteria.

[Lasher]

1. How about lucrative defense contractor jobs for the generals?

I thought that was always the first priority.

[FARAFIELD]

2. No Offence

But it shows how little you know about the process. I was a boomer the 8 years i was in the Air Force, and those are the common factors and in the order. Since there are only 3 major refueling bases in the world its not loke we can just decide where to park them, also reliabililty will ALWAYS be more important than price when you are talking about an airplane. ALWAYS

[unhappycamper]

3. None taken.

I'm not familiar with tanker operations; my comment was directed at the larger issue of megabucks for continual war.

Where are the three major refueling bases located?