Let the tanker campaigning begin!

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, March 29, 2007

The deadline for a lucrative contract supplying the U.S. Air Force with aerial refueling tankers hasn’t arrived, but the campaign by bidders to win over the American public certainly kicked into high gear this week.

Don’t expect it to end soon.

With $40 billion and thousands of aerospace jobs on the line, the folks at both the Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman wouldn’t mind a little public support behind their causes. Northrop and partner EADS labeled their tanker “American made” and talked up its versatility during a press conference Wednesday. (http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/03/29/100bus_tanker001.cfm) Boeing will get a turn to talk up its tanker when the company delivers its first KC-767 to Japan soon — providing the company an opportunity to highlight its history with tankers.

And it’s not just the general public — or potential tanker employees and politicians — who are weighing in on the subject.

The Air Mobility Command posts a white paper on its Web site (http://www.amc.af.mil/) emphasizing the need for a flexible tanker (the KC-30). It quotes General Norton A. Schwartz, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, as saying, “I am looking for versatility; single-mission airplanes don’t give that.”

How did I learn about the Air Mobility white paper? The people at Northrop sent it to me.