Boeing Co. could start laying off up
to 500 workers beginning next month if it doesn’t soon get a
contract worth up to $2 billion to lease 20 new aerial refueling
tankers, the Air Force’s top acquisition official says.
“Without the contract, Boeing would be forced to continue
at their own risk,” Air Force Acquisition Undersecretary Marvin
Sambur wrote in a Nov. 25 e-mail to Michael Wynne, the Pentagon’s
acting top acquisition official. “Five hundred jobs are at risk;
200 can be laid off immediately,” Sambur wrote.
Pentagon officials put the lease contract on hold pending a
review of whether the contracting process was tainted by improper
contacts between Boeing officials and the Air Force’s then No. 2-
acquisition official, who was hired by Boeing in January.
Sambur, in an interview at the Pentagon in Arlington,
Virginia, said he didn’t know how Boeing will react to the delay
in its deal to supply 100 767 planes as refueling tankers to the
Air Force. The overall program is valued at $27.6 billion through
2017, including $18.3 billion in acquisition costs.
Bloomberg News
