WASHINGTON -- The Air Force mistakenly gave rival companies sensitive information that contained each other's confidential bids in a long-standing, multibillion dollar competition to build a new refueling tanker.
Chicago-based Boeing Co., and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), parent of Airbus, are in an intense competition for a $35 billion contract to build 179 new Air Force tankers based either on the Boeing 767 jetliner or the Airbus A330.
Boeing received detailed proprietary information about the EADS bid; corresponding information was given to EADS North America concerning the Boeing bid.
"It was a clerical error and involved a limited amount of source selection information," Air Force spokesman Col. Les Kodlick said late Friday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Kodlick declined to be more specific about what data had been transmitted.
Source selection information is data critical to the Air Force's making a decision on which bid to select and could include technical data about the competing aircraft as well as financial information. Defense News and The Seattle Times initially reported Friday on the Air Force's mistake. The Times said the data included crucial pricing information on the competing bids.
Kodlick said the incident "will not delay" the awarding of the contract which had been expected before year's end, but recently had been postponed until early next year. Kodlick said the postponement was not related to the disclosure of proprietary data.
Read More:Oops: Air Force sends tanker bid details to rivals
