By Andrea Shalal-Esa
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said on Tuesday he saw no prospects for additional funding that would allow the service to split a $40 billion aerial tanker contract between two rival bidders.
Given current funding earmarked for the program, the Air Force could only buy 12 to 15 refueling tankers a year, and it would be uneconomical to split that amount between Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which is teamed with Europe's EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Wynne told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington.
"The cost of that would be prohibitive, unless there was sufficient funding to essentially buy between 24 and 30 -- which has not been authorized, and I don't see any prospects for," Wynne told Reuters Television.
"That leads me to think that the right answer right now is for a single purchase from a single winner," he said.
He said a contract award was expected in the first quarter, but possibly after the current February target date.
"I'd like to say in February, but let's say an award sometime in the first quarter," he said.
Wynne said the Air Force was working hard to make the competition as transparent as possible, especially given the fact that a previous $23.5 billion plan to lease and buy Boeing 767 tankers had to be scrapped after a major procurement scandal that sent a former top Air Force official to jail.
Air Force evaluators were being very open with the companies about any questions or issues with their proposals, Wynne said. Continued...
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