Recently Defense Secretary Robert Gates fired the two top U.S. Air Force officials for failing to protect our nuclear weapons stockpiles, and the Government Accountability Office has identified widespread mismanagement, resulting in wasted taxpayer money and endless contract delays.

In order to win the war against international extremism, the brave soldiers of the U.S. Armed Forces need support from a crack team of professionals in the Department of Defense -- not the bureaucratic equivalent of the Keystone Cops.

Judging by the latest procurement scandal -- the $40 billion purchase of tanker aircraft that didn't meet requirements, that would end up costing a fortune in fuel and maintenance and that had to be set aside for re-competition by Gates -- there needs to be a serious housecleaning inside the Pentagon, for the sake of the U.S. troops around the world putting their lives on the line every day.

The air-tanker case is particularly telling of today's procurement problems. The U.S. Armed Forces desperately need a new fleet of "flying gas stations" to replace hundreds of existing Boeing KC-135 tankers that have operated for more than 50 years. Airborne tankers allow cargo, combat, surveillance and search-and-rescue aircraft to complete their missions over longer distances -- such as from the Middle East to Europe -- without the need for landing in potentially hostile territory for refueling. The U.S. government's choice of a new tanker aircraft will define the extent of U.S. military mobility for the next half-century.

So how did the Pentagon get such an important decision so wrong? According to the GAO report, procurement officials ignored the fact that one of the two tankers in the competition -- the KC-45A tanker offered by Northrop Grumman and European aerospace giant European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. -- could not refuel all aircraft using the required U.S. Air Force maneuvers.

The procurement officials also disregarded the fact that the KC-767 tanker offered by Boeing satisfied more of the U.S. Air Force's requirements, while awarding extra credit to the Northrop-EADS tanker for fielding a larger aircraft, even though such extra credit was expressly forbidden by the contract. They even inflated the cost of the Boeing tanker while underestimating that of the Northrop-EADS tanker.

In a stinging rebuke, the GAO accused the U.S. Air Force of "conducted misleading and unequal discussions" with Boeing about whether the company had met key requirements. According to the GAO report, the Pentagon uniformly skewed the competition in favor of Northrop Grumman and EADS, simultaneously hamstringing Boeing's tanker.

In fact, Boeing produced the superior product by far. The company, which has manufactured 2,000 tankers over the last 75 years, proposed its upgraded "KC-767" model with an all-weather, day or night, fully flight-tested new refueling rod known as a "boom." Northrop Grumman and EADS, which have never built an air tanker, managed only to install a Spanish-developed boom on their Airbus A330 airliner that is still under modifications and months away from completion.

A fleet of the Boeing KC-767s can resupply airborne pilots with up to 2 million gallons more fuel than the EADS KC-30 and is far more survivable under enemy fire, given its highly sophisticated armor and radar systems. Boeing's KC-767 design is about one-half the size and two-thirds the weight of the Northrop-EADS model, meaning that the latter would cost taxpayers at least $25 billion more just to stay in the air.

Perhaps most importantly, the smaller "footprint" of the KC-767 permits the tanker access to twice as many global runways -- more than 800 in all. That is an enormous advantage in the global war on terror, in which we must be capable of launching major military air operations from anywhere in the world at a moment's notice.

Gates has moved quickly to rerun the tanker competition, yielding an award consistent with the GAO's findings by the end of the year. But some are already suggesting changes to the rules -- such as changing the requirements to allow extra credit for larger aircraft -- that would justify the U.S. Air Force's earlier mistakes, making a mockery of the GAO's report.

Gates needs to put a stop to this nonsense. Then he should clean the Pentagon halls of the rest of the bad apples. Judging by the number of problems plaguing the U.S. Air Force and the Pentagon, it won't be the last problem he has to fix, but it's the right place to start.

(Jess Quintero is the immediate past national president of the Hispanic War Veterans of America.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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