KenV - they are supposed to do a rigorous check to ensure a big company doesn't bid below cost to drive competitors out of the market to ensure a future monopoly.
ORAC
The Boeing proposal was a bit 'sporty' - we were basically told to put together our work statements 'assuming success' - but it was doable.
Most of the problems came from horrible management - in the Boeing commercial world only the 787 program had comparably poor management (and I doubt it's a coincidence that most of the management processes and management personnel for the 767-2C/KC-46 came from the 787 program
). It was amazing how they managed to micro-manage areas where we knew what we were doing, yet totally ignored areas where they were clueless as to what was needed. As a result they ended up with refueling manifolds that leaked like a sieve, pipes that were too small to meet the required fuel transfer rates, and critical systems without the required wire separation. I was personally working propulsion system wire separation with the wire design people within months of contract award (wire separation is particularly tricky for the engines due to the limited number of places where wire bundles can pass through the pressure vessel). How those system separation requirements failed to be communicated to some of the other systems is a management mystery. Boeing knew the requirements, the stories in the press that we were caught off guard are bull
- it was poor communication of the requirements.
The tanker program managers who knew what they were doing got so beat up and beat down that they transferred out of the program (I know two managers that simply retired when their efforts to transfer off the KC-46 program were refused).
All those poor design problems became magnified when the first five aircraft were pretty much built before much of the bad designs came to light, the resultant amount of rework was insane. Add to that the inevitable foul-ups and Murphy working overtime (such as the fuel analog screw up) and pretty soon you're $2 billion over budget.