Rumsfeld Sees Probable Tanker Bid ‘Wrongdoing’
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday that Air Force efforts to acquire Boeing 767 jetliners for use as aerial refueling tankers appeared to have been tainted by “wrongdoing.”
Announcing a new study into the condition of the current tanker fleet, he in effect delayed until May at the earliest the possible acquisition of the Boeing Co. aircraft, a deal potentially worth more than $20 billion.
“I can assure you that, if there has been wrongdoing, as there appears to have been, we will take appropriate action,” Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Defense Science Board, a Pentagon advisory panel, will study the Air Force’s push to phase out its KC-135 Stratotanker fleet, the last of which was delivered in 1965, rather than put new engines on them or “recapitalize” in another way, Pentagon officials said.
The study will evaluate “the factual and statistical basis for the need for tanker recapitalization, current capabilities and make recommendations concerning future courses of action,” said Cheryl Irwin, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
A halt to talks with Boeing about the proposed tanker deal will remain in place until all reviews have been completed, including an investigation by the inspector general and a new Science Board study, results of which are due around May 1, Irwin said. The plan to lease, then buy, a total of 100 767s as replacements for the KC-135s was put on hold Dec. 1 pending an audit by the Pentagon’s in-house watchdog against fraud, waste and abuse.
At issue, among other things, was whether taxpayers might be paying higher prices for the 767s because of improper links between Boeing and Darleen Druyun, the top Air Force negotiator on the tanker deal before she joined the Chicago-based aerospace giant in January 2003. She was fired Nov. 24.
“Boeing is committed to the tanker program,” said Douglas Kennett, a Boeing spokesman.
An Air Force-sponsored Rand Corp. study released this week supported plans to replace the KC-135 tanker fleet by the end of the decade, though it advised more study.
