Northrop Grumman: Any Delay to Amended Request for Proposal Process Harms Warfighters and American Taxpayers

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 /EMWNews/ -- Northrop Grumman said

today that it views any delay to the amended request for proposal for the

tanker replacement program as harmful to the warfighter and that a delay

will result in a direct escalation in cost to the government thereby

harming American taxpayers.



    In Northrop Grumman's view of the history of this procurement and like

procurements by the Defense Department, we can find no precedent whereby a

post-Protest RFP Amendment permitted more than 60 days from release for

submission of revised offers. In fact, many are less than a week. Given the

long history of the KC-135 Replacement Procurement, which spans over six

years to date, Northrop Grumman finds this additional time request

disturbing given that the final Government Accountability Office Report

that sustained the Protest was confined to only minor "Process" errors. Any

delay in this RFP process will extend the time our warfighters will get

badly needed new refueling aircraft by years.



    The requirements of the new aerial refueling tanker were stated in the

final RFP, which was released in January 2007. The time already being

offered by the Defense Department, together with the six weeks since the

Defense Department's announcement of its post-protest approach, is more

than enough time for any necessary revisions to existing proposals. If one

competitor decides it is now time to listen to their customer and

fundamentally change their offer, that is their choice, but the warfighter

and taxpayer should not have to bear the burden of their late-breaking

change in business strategy. The Northrop Grumman KC-45 tanker won the

competition on the merits of its superior capability. America needs a new

tanker now and the Northrop Grumman KC-45 is ready now.