Murphy Responds to GAO Decision Upholding Boeing Protest of Air Force Tanker Contract Award

Press Release

Congressman Chris Murphy (CT-5) issued the following comments, following the Government Accountability Office's decision to sustain the Boeing protest of the Air Force acquisition process for the $35 billion award to replace the aging KC-135 air refueling tankers.

"It's a do-over for the Air Force. After months of debate over why the Air Force determined that it would be best to outsource our defense work to foreign nations while our skilled workforce in Connecticut sits idly by, we finally will have a chance to compete fairly. This decision is what's best for the economy and security of not only Connecticut, but the nation," said Murphy.

In the GAO's review of the record, they concluded "that the Air Force made a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman. We therefore sustained Boeing's protest." The decision to sustain the protest was based on seven points, including that the Air Force failed to assess the relative merits of the proposals in accordance with the evaluation criteria identified in the solicitation; the Air Force conducted misleading and unequal discussions with Boeing; and the Air Force's evaluation of military construction costs in calculating the offerors' most probable life cycle costs for their proposed aircraft was unreasonable.

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