Boeing's rapid challenge of tanker deal invokes 'automatic stay of performance'WASHINGTON -- The Air Force halted work on an airborne refueling tanker contract Tuesday after Boeing Co. formally appealed the military's decision to award the deal to a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and its partner, EADS North America.
Because the protest to the U.S. Government Accountability Office came within five days after Boeing was 'debriefed" on the reasons for its loss, "there is an automatic stay of performance," Lt. Col. Jennifer Cassidy, an Air Force spokeswoman, said via e-mail. She declined comment on whether the Air Force might seek a waiver that would allow the project to move forward in Mobile.
A spokesman for Los Angeles-based Northrop could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon on the potential effect of the Air Force's pause. On Friday, one executive had indicated that construction on Northrop's part of the $600 million assembly plant at Brookley Field Industrial Complex would begin by month's end.
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