Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Boeing Co (BA), Politics, Northrop Grumman (NOC)
The Government Accountability Office has decided that the Air Force has done Boeing (NYSE: BA) dirty. It states that in the bidding process for a new air tanker, the Air Force should not have favored Northrop-Grumman (NYSE:NOC) for the project. NOC won the tanker deal several months ago.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the decision “effectively gives Boeing the chance to recapture its decades-long lock on the business of supplying planes that can refuel other planes in midair.” The GAO said the Air Force analysts had made mistakes in some of their evaluation analysis.
The whole matter stinks. Boeing has been able to push its agenda in Washington by lobbying hard to keep jobs for the tanker in the US. The Northrop proposal would have had EADS, the European airplane maker, do some of the work. Several senators got behind the idea that Boeing should get another chance.
Was the GAO influenced by Congress? Who will ever know, but if Boeing, which is the incumbent for supplying the military tankers, can get into the position to bid again, something seems a bit off.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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