The Pentagon's Air Force refueling tanker procurement failure

¶ … Pentagon's Procurement Problem, June 20, 2008

LOCATION/URL OF ARTICLE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061903622.html

The award of a new refueling tanker was regarded as a major chance for the Air Force to redeem itself through avoiding previous missteps and mistakes in substituting its aging aircraft fleet. While the service was started in 2006 to develop an evidently clear and straightforward process, it was largely criticized based on arguments that the $40 billion deal awarded to Boeing competitor and other companies should be scrapped. These companies were Northrop Grumman and its partner and European Aeronautic Defense, which is the parent of Airbus (Hedgpeth & O'Harrow, 2008). The contract awarded to these companies was a demonstration of the constant general problems associated with the manner in which Pentagon purchases weapons as well as procurement specialists. Based on various government audits and reports, government lessens the size of the workforce that supervises contracts through ceding more of its work to private firms. The Air Force did not follow the technical parameters, miscalculated the total costs, and granted Northrop's plane too much credit for size beyond Air Force's necessary capabilities.

CRITIQUE: The article provides a balanced evaluation of the Pentagon's procurement problem involving the Air Force. To demonstrate the claims or conclusion for the scrapping of $40 billion contract, the authors have based their arguments on the findings of Government Accountability Office on this deal. Generally, federal contracts have constantly been plagued with procurement issues emerging from failure to comply with the requirements and rules of procurement. Actually, valuing cost certainty and low prices is one of the five major factors that plague Pentagon procurement processes (Greenwalt, 2013). This implies that most of the problems associated with these procurement procedures could be resolved by compliance with procurement rules and requirements. In the awarding the refueling tanker contract, the Air Force could have avoided the issues that contributed to the failure of the project.