The saga of finding a replacement for the tanker aircraft in the U.S. Air Force fleet will seemingly never end. The process has been marred with allegations of favoritism and plenty of politic posturing from the beginning.

Northrop Grumman/EADs originally won the contract only to have that win overturned after Boeing protested. The RFP was rewritten after the Northrop win was overturned with the new RFP being released in February. Northrop and EADS were not happy with the new RFP stating that it clearly favored the smaller Boeing aircraft.

While Boeing was happy with the new RFP and unveiled its NewGen aircraft that it would be submitting for the bidding process, Northrop Grumman threatened to pull out of the entire bidding process if the RFP wasn't rewritten again. The Pentagon declined to rewrite the RFP and in March, Northrop announced that it was pulling out of the process making good on its threat. EADS said in late March that it was considering bidding on the tanker contract without Northrop and was looking for an American company to collaborate with.

The DoD has caught a lot of flack over its willingness to continue the process with only one bidder for the contract. A new wrinkle in the saga unfolded yesterday when the DoD announced that it would let the deadline for bids be extended for an additional 60 days if EADS would bid according to DoD spokesman Geoff Morell.

Morel stated that the DoD was willing to compromise on the evaluation process in order to meet the planned early fall award date for the final tanker contract. The DoD spokesman states that the selection process for an aircraft would be fair without politics being part of the selection process.

Northrop is still out as an EADS partner because the RFP favors the smaller Boeing offering. However, EADS -- the parent company of Airbus -- has stated that it "will consider" bidding on the contract with the 60-day extension. However, EADS has indicated that it will take 90 days to put together a bid reports Defense News.

Senator Richard Shelby issued a statement saying, "The Department of Defense made the right decision today in extending the deadline for bids on a new aerial refueling tanker. A sole-sourced contract would have served only Boeing's interests. The presence of a competitor better serves the interest of our war fighters and American taxpayers. It is my hope that EADS will be able to offer a competitive bid, despite the fact that the RFP has been skewed toward Boeing from the beginning."

However, Senator Patty Murray came down on the opposite side form Shelby and issued her own statement saying, "This is completely unacceptable. This extension means that we are once again bending the rules for a company that has refused to play by them. Holding the door open to an illegally-subsidized foreign company is the wrong move for our men and women in uniform, our workers, and our economy. Airbus has had ample time to compete for this contract and put forth a bid. A sixty-day extension is simply another Airbus delay tactic that comes at the expense of our workers and our service members."