WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co (N:BA) said it was briefed on Friday by the U.S. Air Force about its selection of Northrop Grumman Corp (N:NOC) to build a next-generation long-range strike bomber and will decide whether to protest the contract award "in the coming days."
Boeing, which had teamed up with Lockheed Martin Corp (N:LMT), told its staff in a memo on Tuesday that it would "rigorously deliberate" whether to fight the tender outcome, with a decision likely within two weeks.
Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher said the Air Force briefing with the Boeing-Lockheed team had been completed, but declined to provide any details on what the companies were told, or who participated.
"We will spend the coming days reviewing what we were told about how the competition was scored. After that, we'll be in position to decide on our next steps," he said.
The U.S. Air Force declined comment.
Under federal law, companies have 10 days after an agency debrief to file with the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an arm of Congress that rules on federal contract protests. The GAO then has 100 days to evaluate the case.
The Air Force on Tuesday selected Northrop, maker of the stealthy B-2 bomber, to develop and build the new bomber, a deal analysts value at up to $80 billion.
Boeing and Lockheed immediately said they wanted answers on how the competition was scored with regard to price and risk.
Air Force officials have declined to comment publicly about how the two bids compared. They said only that Northrop's bomber represented the "best value for the nation" and would cost $511 million per plane, on average, in 2010 dollars, well below the program's cost cap of $550 million per plane.