McCain doesn't want tanker contract split between Boeing and Northrop

The new competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman-EADS to build an aerial refueling tanker for the U.S. Air Force should remain a winner-take-all contest, Sen. John McCain said Friday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has rejected dividing the contract, "and I have too," said McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"Just because of politics, we shouldn't split" the contract between them, McCain said. "It would only be a political decision."

The tanker program has been delayed for years. Los Angeles-based Northrop and Airbus parent European Aeronautic, Defence & Space won a contract valued at $35 billion in February 2008; losing bidder Boeing successfully protested the award.

Gates in September delayed the rebid until the next presidential administration, citing a lack of time to conduct a "fair and objective competition." The Pentagon is now crafting the terms of the new contest.

McCain's remarks were in reaction to a suggestion by some House members, including Rep. John Murtha, chairman of a House panel on military spending, that the award be split as a way to prevent the losing competitor from again protesting the decision to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.