US refueling tanker contract to go up for new bid

The Pentagon Wednesday reopened a 35-billion-dollar contract to produce a new generation of aerial fuel tankers, acknowledging flaws in the US Air Force's decision to award it to Northrop Grumman and European partner EADS.

In an embarrassing about-face, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Northrop Grumman and rival Boeing would be asked to submit revised bids for the tanker contract to a new Defense Department team.

"We believe that we can complete all of this and award a contract by December," Gates told a Pentagon briefing, adding that reopening the competition would not "represent a return to the first step of a process that already has gone on far too long."

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