Boeing mentor took part in tanker war games - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Boeing mentor took part in tanker war games

The Air Force let a retired four-star general who was an executive for Boeing participate in a war game involving an aerial tanker that the company was vying to build for the military for more than $50 billion, records state.

Air Force officials, concerned about retired Gen. Charles Robertson’s potential conflict of interest, altered the war game to let him participate as a “senior mentor,” according to the Air Force emails released under a Freedom of Information Act request.

“The episode regarding Gen. Robertson shows that concerns over the mentors’ conflicts of interest are not just theoretical,” said Nick Schwellenbach of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group. “In this case, a mentor’s work consulting for the Pentagon directly related to one of his company’s biggest potential contracts.”

The email answers questions raised in the fall of 2009 about the Air Force’s use of senior mentors, retired generals and admirals who advised the Pentagon. A USA Today investigation found that 80 percent of 158 mentors had ties to the defense industry, including Robertson.

The Air Force, in 2009, did not reveal Robertson’s name, his role as a mentor or his business ties, and it took two years to respond to the FOIA request. Joint Forces Command released emails within weeks of a similar request.

In reaction to stories on the mentors, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Congress capped mentors’ pay at $179,900 and made them subject to government conflict-of-interest laws and required them to disclose their outside business interests.

Since the rules went into effect, 351 mentors quit, citing low pay and limits on outside consulting, according to the Pentagon inspector general. Four mentors remain as consultants.

Robertson’s role in the Air Force’s quest to build a new tanker took place before the rule changes. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful. Boeing spokeswoman Ellen Buhr declined to comment.

In February, the Pentagon awarded a $3.5 billion contract to Boeing for development of the KC-46A aerial refueler. Eventually, 179 will be built for $51 billion, Bloomberg News reported.

Robertson, who retired in 2001, was the chief of U.S. Transportation Command and Air Mobility Command, Pentagon agencies responsible for moving troops and materiel around the world. He took a position with Boeing in 2001 and retired in 2010 as a vice president.

In late 2007, the Air Force invited him to take part in the war game Global Mobility 2008, according to an email. The Air Force omitted names of those who sent or received the email.

Air Force officials noted concerns about Robertson’s potential conflict “from the beginning of the process,” and how they worked around it. Gen. Arthur Lichte, top officer at Air Mobility Command in 2009, noted Robertson’s position as a mentor and Boeing’s involvement in the tanker contract and “suggested caution about how we play the [tanker] in the war game.”

Air Force officials concluded that “Robertson’s position on the ‘support’ side of Boeing would not conflict with the objectives” of the war game.