Saxton Statement for Hearing on the Way Forward for the KC-X Aerial Refueling Tanker Program

Jul 9, 2008
Press Release

Contact: Josh Holly; 202.226.3988 

Saxton Statement for Hearing on the Way Forward for the KC-X Aerial Refueling Tanker Program 

Washington D.C. --- Today, the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee held a hearing to examine the Department of Defense’s way forward for the KC-X aerial refueling tanker program.  On July 9, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced his decision to re-compete the program following a highly critical report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Ranking Republican on the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, released the following opening statement: 

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you said, we are here today to learn about the Department's plan for the way ahead on the KC-X tanker acquisition after the GAO upheld the contract award protest by the Boeing Company.  Yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the original ‘Request for Proposal’ will be amended to address the GAO findings and the competition will be reopened.  I look forward to learning more about how this will be executed and am specifically interested in learning about the timeline for all of this. 

“As all the members of the subcommittee know, every day that goes by that we aren't fielding a new tanker is one day longer that the already aged fleet of KC-135’s must continue to operate.  We need to get on with this and get a new tanker out to the warfighter as soon as we can. 

“As part of the discussion today, I hope we will be able to get into the broader issue of the defense acquisition process—what I like to call the elephant in the room.  How does a high priority acquisition program, with intense oversight and scrutiny at the highest levels of the Department of Defense, fall so short of the mark?   

·         “Is it a lack of personnel with critical acquisition skills? 

·         “Has the complexity of modern weapons systems raised the complexity of the acquisition such that programs can't be successfully managed? 

·         “Are the policies and procedures in place adequate to guide decision making? 

“The bottom line—our national security depends upon the ability to procure the weapons, planes and equipment our men and women in uniform need to accomplish their mission in a timely fashion. We need to now figure out what's broken in the DOD acquisition process and we need to get it fixed....fast. 

“In that vein, I'm also concerned about the requirements development process and the manner in which the requirements drive the acquisition.  I've been told by an old friend who knows this subject and the Air Force very well, and he shared with me his opinion that the Air Force's original selection of the A330 was a terrible decision.  He thought the decision had two fatal flaws. First, that over time—the life-cycle of operating the A330—we were going to end up spending an awful lot more money keeping that plane flying than we would if we were flying the 767.  He also said that if we buy these A330s, we won't be able to park enough of them in the theater of operations to efficiently carry out the mission.  Now, in my mind, the warfighter requirement to have a tanker that we can afford to operate in the years to come, and to have a tanker that we can actually park in the theater of operations are clear, basic requirements.  However, it seems, based on the initial source selection by the Air Force, that those basic requirements were somehow lowered in priority or pushed into a grey-area that didn't affect the outcome of the competition.  I don't know if this was a result of the specific flaws found by the GAO in this competition or if there is a bigger issue here and I'm interested in hearing from our witnesses on this topic. 

“With that I welcome, once again, our witnesses from the GAO.  Gentlemen, thank you for coming back again today and thank you for all the time and effort you put into evaluating this source selection.  We appreciate what you do.  Secretary Young, thank you for your service and thank you for being here as well. I look forward to your testimony.” 

 

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