Pentagon to decide on tanker contract

"The Air Force could try anything from a quick fix to starting over," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank.

But as a practical matter, Thompson said, any attempt that appears to ignore the GAO report would meet resistance in Congress, where lawmakers could move to block the Air Force from awarding the contract to Northrop Grumman.

Meanwhile, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., introduced a Senate Resolution Tuesday calling on the Pentagon to rebid the flawed tanker contract.

"The GAO's decision was clear, and today we are reiterating that message so that the Pentagon knows there is no wiggle room," Murray said. "It's time to go back and hold a truly transparent competition that does our war fighters and taxpayers justice."

The resolution was co-sponsored by Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Kit Bond, R-Mo. and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

Sen. Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, where the Northrop Grumman plane would be assembled, said he would support the bidders submitting revised proposals instead of a "full recompetition" to speed the process along.

"It is important to remember that the GAO's concerns were with procedural flaws in the Air Force's process, not with Northrop Grumman's product," Shelby said.

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Associated Press Writers Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.