Video: Raw: Rep. Norm Dicks calls tanker process a 'bait and switch'

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday he stands behind the Air Force's decision to award a $35 billion contract to a European airplane.

"I believe, based on the briefings that I've received, that it was a fair competition and a merit-based decision," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon. He said the contract for the air-to-air refueling tankers was awarded under rules established in law.

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the plane by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., was "clearly a better performer" than the one from Chicago-based Boeing Co.

The committee chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and the panel's top Republican, John Warner of Virginia, said they would want more information on how the contract was won after the companies are briefed Friday.

But Warner, who oversaw the tanker deal as chairman of the committee before Levin, commended the Air Force's process and said he supports the decision.

Addressing criticism on Capitol Hill that the Pentagon is outsourcing military purchasing, Warner said lawmakers should back off.

"I feel very strongly that Congress should not get into the business of trying to rewrite a contract, particularly one of this magnitude and complexity," he said.

Nonetheless, the uproar continued. Boeing supporters and union officials criticized the decision and Boeing said its interpretation of the bidding criteria was different from the Air Force's.

CSPAN2 / KING

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, speaks against the Air Force air tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman-EADS on the floor of the U.S. Senate. March 5, 2008.

"The bait and switch tactics used by the air force to first say they wanted a medium sized tanker," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. "Had Boeing known, that the Air Force wanted more, it would have bid the 777."

While Boeing had already started building 767 tankers for two foreign governments, it did ask the Air Force if it wanted something bigger in the 777.  The Air Force said no, but the tanker the Air Force selected based on the airbus A330 is almost as large as the 777. 

"It's been fair and open. We've communicated constantly with both of the offers. There have been no change requirements," said Sue Peyton, assistant Air Force acquisitions secretary.

Is the plane too big?

So what is the Air Force getting?    

The Airbus jet claims more capabilities:

-- 21 percent more fuel

-- 19 percent more passengers

-- 68 percent more cargo and more than double the number of medical litters as the Boeing plane.

But questions continue to be raised as to whether it's going to fit into Air Force infrastructure like hangars that currently house KC-135's that use half the space.  When the planes are compared size-wise, the wingspan of the airbus is 42 feet wider than the 767.   The plane is also 34 feet longer and seven feet taller at the tail.

"You're going to have to have massive construction plans to rebuild hangars at airbases all over the world," said Dicks.

Wynne, the Air Force secretary, told senators the planes were judged on nine key criteria and "across the spectrum, all evaluated, the Northrop Grumman airplane was clearly a better performer."

In addition, he said the Boeing proposal was judged to be more risky and more expensive.

Responding to criticism of the award, Northrop Grumman reiterated in a statement its tanker will produce 2,000 new jobs in Mobile, Ala., and support 25,000 jobs at suppliers nationwide. The EADS/Northrop Grumman team plans to perform its final assembly work in Mobile, although the underlying plane would mostly be built in Europe, and it will use General Electric Co. engines built in North Carolina and Ohio.

The tanker program "will create a new aerospace manufacturing corridor in the southeastern United States," Northrop Grumman said in a statement, adding that its tanker will include roughly 60 percent U.S. content.

The contract calls for the Air Force to buy 179 in-flight tanker aircraft over the next 15 years as it replaces its Boeing-built KC-135 tankers, which are on average 47 years old.

Boeing had been heavily favored to win the contract, and the Air Force's decision helps EADS -- maker of Airbus -- break into the world's largest military market and opens the door to possible follow-up contracts.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)