Pentagon plans credit for more tanker fuel offload

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will measure the government's cost of owning and operating new aerial refueling tankers over 40 years, the expected service life of the new aircraft, versus the 25 years examined in an earlier contest that was successfully protested, a top Pentagon official on Wednesday confirmed.

Shay Assad, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said the Pentagon made changes to the guidelines for the competition to give the rival bidders -- Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp -- "a clear and unambiguous understanding" of how their bids would be judged.

He said the Pentagon had also explained that the bids would receive "positive consideration" for exceeding the required capacity to offload fuel, a change that congressional aides say will favor the larger A330 plane proposed by Northrop and its European partner EADS EAD.PA>.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)