U.S. Air Force focused on tanker acquisition

* Draft rules due in next few weeks

* Service still aims to buy 179 planes

* Eyeing about 600 planes overall

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md., Sept 15 - The U.S. Air Force said on Tuesday it was focused on esnuring its third attempt to buy new aerial refueling planes succeeds, and that the military wins any protests that might be filed against the winner.

"The most important thing we have to do in this year is deliver on the KC-X acquisition," Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz told reporters at the Air Force Association annual conference.

"That will have a lot to do with many other things and people's perceptions of our competence. So we're taking that very, very seriously," Schwartz said.

Former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and his chief of staff, Gen. Michael Moseley, were forced to resign in June 2008 amid charges of nuclear weapons handling mistakes, favoritism in awarding a Thunderbirds contract, and a sense that the Air Force was not supplying sufficient intelligence assets for the war.

Shortly thereafter, the Government Accountability Office also upheld a protest filed by Boeing Co <BA.N> against a projected $35 billion contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp <NOC.N> and Airbus parent EADS <EAD.PA> for 179 tankers.

The service's first tanker acquisition drive, a sole-source lease deal with Boeing, collapsed amid a major procurement scandal that sent a former top Air Force weapons buyer and Boeing's former chief financial officer to federal prison.

Schwartz said the service was determined to get the tanker competition right this time, and to ensure that it prevailed in any protests that could be filed by the companies this around.

He said the Air Force has an acquisition improvement plan, which would be focused on the tanker program, which is due to kick off with a draft request for proposals (RFP) in "the next few weeks."

He said he would not necessarily link the success of the acquisition reforms to the filing of a protest by one of the companies in the bidding, given certain company imperatives.

"But a fair measure of merit will be succeeding in the protest," he said.

AIMING FOR FOOLPROOF RULES

Asked about suggestions that the companies could even file protests against the rules of the competition, once they are finalized, Schwartz said he hoped that would not be the case.

"The companies will do what they have to do," he said. "Do you think that we'd put an RFP on the street that we didn't think was near foolproof?"

Schwartz rejected comments by some industry observers who say the Air Force has been less willing to engage in dialogue with the companies during the run-up to this competition.

Schwartz said his view was that "there's been far better communication than was previously the case."

General Arthur Lichte, who heads Air Mobility Command, the part of the Air Force that will own and operate the new tankers, said the plan was still to buy 12 to 15 airplanes a year, for an initial total of 179 planes.

In the longer term, he said the Air Force would likely need 520 to 640 new tankers.