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Boeing Says Air Force Stacked Deck In Favor Of Competitors

Washington, D.C. – Boeing said Air Force officials tilted the playing field in a 35 billion dollar contract competition toward Northrop Grumman and EADS to keep the two in the game.

The company's formal protest of the air tanker award was released today. Boeing said the Air Force ``repeatedly made fundamental but often unstated changes to the bid requirements and evaluation process'' to keep the Northrop Grumman/EADS proposal alive.

Last week, Boeing filed its protest the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force award.

Northrop Grumman's CEO also went on the offensive last week, warning that tossing the tanker award would undermine all government procurement.

Lawmakers from Alabama and other states where the Northrop/EADS team will perform its tanker work are rallying the defense. Although the underlying Airbus plane would be built mostly in Europe, the companies plan to perform final assembly work in Mobile and use General Electric engines built in North Carolina and Ohio.

The GAO has 100 days from the date of Boeing's March 11th protest filing to issue a decision.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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