A sole source contract is not in the country’s best interest. Forget dislike for Boeing, or dislike for a plane designed by socialists. They are spending at least $40 BILLION dollars.
If its sole soured we will surely get less for our dollars.
The RFP in this case is enormous, I’ve looked at it. They need to make sure some detail wasn’t inserted which would cause them to lose. That takes time.
Its done all the time in govt contracts. A single sentence or requirement is added which can have a significant impact.
In a section completely unrelated to the requirement being modified, slipped in between acres of boilerplate, or by hiding a specific requirement under "general".
(My favorite was an attempt to bust someone for non compliance to "implied requirements")