John Young, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, is about to explain to the House Armed Services Committee how he will stage the recompetition of the poor old KC-X contract.
Watch my Twitter updates -- or, um, "tweets" -- in the space on the right, or check out my twitter page here: http://twitter.com/TheDEWLine
Here's my Twitter transcript from the first half of today's hearing, which featured testimony and a lively Q&A with GAO deputy general counsel Daniel Gordon.
TheDEWLine Young
answers: "We will not give extra credit for additional fuel." Credit
will be given for threshold. More credit given for more fuel.
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First panel
Watch my Twitter updates -- or, um, "tweets" -- in the space on the right, or check out my twitter page here: http://twitter.com/TheDEWLine
Here's my Twitter transcript from the first half of today's hearing, which featured testimony and a lively Q&A with GAO deputy general counsel Daniel Gordon.
TheDEWLine Young
answers: "We will not give extra credit for additional fuel." Credit
will be given for threshold. More credit given for more fuel.
| TheDEWLine More from Rep Dicks: "You know what's going to happen. There's going to be another protest. And we won't get anything done." |
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| TheDEWLine Rep Dicks, quoted below, is from the Seattle area. The "big, monstrous airplane" he referred to is the KC-30. |
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| TheDEWLine Rep Dicks:You're going to say that the bigger tanker gets more credit.This is the wrong decision.You don't want this big monstrous airplane. ... |
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| TheDEWLine Young says there will be 2 RFP changes. 1) Weighting the relative value of 808 requirements. 2) Clarifying desire for more fuel offload. |
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| TheDEWLine Rep Miller, of Florida, asks: If Boeing switches to the 777, how will that affect the evaluation? Young answers there would be a delay. |
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| TheDEWLine Young also says that near-term hardware and production costs will be measured with "higher-confidence" than lifecycle costs in re-bid. |
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| TheDEWLine Young says he doesn't expect new tanker to survive 40 years. But requirements call for a 40-year lifecyle, so that will guide estimates. |
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| TheDEWLine Young replies: "I may not make the end of the year but I will make every effort to do that." |
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| TheDEWLine Rep Abercrombie, subcommittee chairman, says: "If don't finish by the end of the year, then you have to start this thing all over again." |
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| TheDEWLine Young just extended his self-imposed deadline for contract award. It's now "late 2008 or early 2009". |
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| TheDEWLine John Young, undersecretary of acquisition, technology and logistics, for DOD is now testifying. We're about to enter fourth hour of hearing. |
First panel
In the end, three Northrop supporters in Congress spoke out at the hearing, but they were heavily outnumbered by Boeing's allies. Maybe 3:1.
| TheDEWLine Miller did not accept Gordon's assertion that the consulting auditor was not involved in the final report, but offered no evidence. |
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| TheDEWLine Gordon did acknowledge that 1 member on auditing staff consulted the lawyers working on the tanker protest, but had no role in the report. |
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| TheDEWLine Gordon said the GAO union recruited only members of the auditors division. Lawyers working on the bid protest docket were not involved. |
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| TheDEWLine GAO's Gordon defended the GAO's impartiality to Miller's charges. |
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| TheDEWLine The GAO union's home page says: IFPTE recognizes GAO employees are bound by ... impartiality and non-partisanship in their official work. |
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| TheDEWLine This is the GAO analysts union that is part of the IFPTE: http://tinyurl.com/5fh3wa |
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| TheDEWLine Miller represents 1st district of Florida. Panhandle area. Northrop's tanker team is based in Melbourne, Florida. |
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| TheDEWLine Miller's remarks are the first from Congress to challenge GAO's fairness and impartiality in this case, to my knowledge. |
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| TheDEWLine Miller says GAO analysts started a join that's part of IFPTE. IFPTE came out against Northrop contract and lobbied for Boeing. |
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| TheDEWLine Jeff Miller, Congressman from Florida, raises intriguing new question in tanker hearing. |
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| TheDEWLine Mark Lindsley, Northrop's top BD exec for tanker, is in the hearing room, according to InsideDefense'com's tanker blog. Boeing reps unseen. |
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| TheDEWLine If Northrop Grumman's tanker team has allies in Congress, they haven't spoken up yet in the today's hearing. |
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| TheDEWLine From InsideDefense.com's tanker blog: Rep Jim Saxton, D-New Jersey, claims neutral position, but district adjoins Boeing site in Philly. |
Mr. Young's last comment, "No extra credit for more fuel..." was pretty confusing there. Which one did he mean?!
It's hard to know exactly what he meant, because it is confusing. But my interpretation at the time was that he was quibbling with the use of the term "extra credit". He was clear that official credit will be given for exceeding the fuel offload threshold. Some might call that extra credit, but my understanding is that Young doesn't want people to think of it that anyway.
I am confused as I think the DOD is. Young says no extra credit for size and Gates tells Sen. Levin there will be extra credit given. What's up?