Boeing confident of winning back tanker deal

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co's (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) program manager for tanker aircraft voiced great confidence on Tuesday about winning back a $35 billion aerial-refueling deal from a team that includes European archrival Airbus.

Mark McGraw, a company vice president, said he was "as confident as I can be" that congressional auditors would find fault with the U.S. Air Force's February 29 choice of the rival team of Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to build 179 planes.

On March 10, Chicago-based Boeing, in a protest to the Government Accountability Office, said the Air Force had gone overboard to keep Northrop and EADS from withdrawing and to preserve the "possibility of competition."

In an edited summary of its complaint provided to reporters on Tuesday, Boeing said the winning plane, a modified Airbus A330, was a much riskier choice than Boeing's proposed tanker based on its smaller 767 airliner.

In picking the A330, the Air Force misapplied its own selection criteria, disregarded its bidding specifications and breached federal acquisition rules, Boeing told the GAO.

The result was a contract "that is fundamentally unfair not only to Boeing, but to the warfighter and the American people," the protest summary said.

Despite his stated confidence in reversing the outcome, McGraw, in a teleconference with reporters, said Boeing faced an "uphill battle" to persuade the GAO, which has up to 100 days to make a recommendation to the Air Force.

"I think the best we can hope for is another shot" at the competition, he said, referring to a possible rerun of all or part of the contest to correct alleged flaws in the process.