Report: Obama wants 5-year delay to Air Force tanker contract — UPDATED

Published 10:49 am Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Congressional Quarterly has reported that President Obama wants to delay the Air Force’s aerial refueling tanker contest by five years.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates had said he planned to re-start a competition between the Boeing Co. and duo Northrop Grumman and EADS for the muliti-billion dollar tanker deal this spring. And Rep. John Murtha, who chairs a defense appropriations subcommittee, said he wants to put money in the budget this year to get the much-delayed contest going.

Politicians from the states which would benefit from the tanker, for once, agree on something: the tanker program shouldn’t wait another five years. The procurement has already dragged out eight years and many of the existing tankers are nearly 50 years old.

Boeing had pitched a tanker based off its Everett-built 767 commercial jet in the last go-round. If the contest is delayed five years, the company likely will be near the end of 767 production. What happens to the KC-767 then?

UPDATED: Alex Glass, a spokeswoman for Sen. Patty Murray, said that as far as the senator is aware, the Air Force tanker program remains the top acquisitions priority.

So, we’ll wait and see whether the tanker goes forward this spring as previously planned.