Tanker War Gets Nasty

Reuters reports and Tanker War Blog can confirm that last Friday the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Duncan McNabb, met the CEOs of Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp to voice concern about the nasty tone of the tanker debate.

Gen. McNabb, who by the way is a great leader and admired by us at TWB, has every right to be concerned. But, the trouble he faces is that his people are not helping the situation.

As our inaugural post Integrity Above All pointed out, it was Air Force procurement personnel who seeded the story that Boeing had lost by a wide margin and to make public and congressional opinion go against a possible Boeing protest. This shameful tactic worked in the media and generated numerous stories that Boeing lost decisively see here, here, and here. But if anything it only hardened congressional opinion and may have actually forced Boeing into protesting the decision. (How else were they going to get the straight story from an organization that seeming sold its integrity for preemptive media spin.)

Also, left unaddressed are the Air Force rumors of Boeing's "arrogance" that were leaked in the aftermath of the tanker contract announcement. See here, here, here.

BTW: A reporter friend tells us that the defense expert who was the recipient of much of the preemptive information is now highly upset with his Air Force sources as they have backed away from most of their assertions.

We at TWB could have leaked the the Gen. McNabb meeting but Boeing supporters were asked to respect the privacy of the gathering.

Imagine then our surprise to see that Air Force personnel leaked information about the meeting and were sources for the Reuters article:

"It's really gotten ugly," said one Air Force official who spoke on condition he not be identified.

Authorized or not, Air Force leaks and blatant spin have made it an active participant, not an innocent bystander, in the tanker debate. At Tanker War Blog we will continue to do our part to keep the tanker debate civil, we hope others will do the same.

PS-One of our members dared us incessantly to incorporate a Janet photo when she heard the post's topic.....we finally gave in, so we hope you like it. Sorry no Jackson/Timberlake Superbowl photos; that truely would be nasty.

Integrity "Above All"

For our first post we want to address a leak in this announced contract that in our view requires clarification and tarnishes the Air Force's good name.

At a press conference on 29 February Sue Payton, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, announced that the Northrop Grumman/EADS team had won the contract to produce the next generation aerial refueler over rival Boeing.

When asked about specifics about the proposals Ms. Payton replied, “Actually, until we debrief Boeing, I will not -- I will not go into details there. We owe it to Boeing to give them the first debrief on this, so I will defer that question and the answer to that question until we've debriefed the offer.”

When questioned later to provide other proposal details Ms. Payton replied again, “No, I don't think I should do that. I think I owe it to Boeing to discuss the elements of our decision with them first.”

Too bad this moral high ground and honesty “above all” approach to the procurement process lasted for only 24 hours.

Contrary to Ms. Payton’s public statements Air Force personnel briefed at least one outside defense expert and sought to brief members of congress while telling Boeing that the earliest they could be briefed was the 12th of March. (Pentagon acquisition chief John Young eventually stepped in an ordered the Air Force to brief Boeing earlier on 7 March.)

These actions were taken to seed the story that Boeing had lost decisively and to make public and congressional opinion go against a possible Boeing protest. This shameful tactic did work in the media and generated numerous stories that Boeing lost decisively see here, here, and here. But if anything it only hardened congressional opinion and may have actually forced Boeing into protesting the decision. (How else were they going to get the straight story from an organization that seeming sold its integrity for preemptive media spin.)