Does Boeing want to split tanker deal with Northrop?
Published 1:20 pm Thursday, April 2, 2009
As early as next week, we could see the seemingly endless battle to build Air Force tankers revisited when Congress looks over the Defense budget for efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., has said he plans to put in language to the spending bill to divide the multi-billion dollar contract between Boeing and Airbus.
Murtha told DoDBuzz.com, an online defense journal, that his plan could save taxpayers billions of dollars in costly repairs and maintenance to the existing fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers.
Under Murtha’s plan, the Pentagon would accelerate its acquisition of tankers by buying both Boeing’s KC-767 and Northrop and EADS’ KC-30, retiring the aging KC-135s more quickly.
In an e-mail this morning, Northrop Grumman pointed to a recent radio broadcast with national security reporter J.J. Green who recently witnessed a KC-135 that malfunctioned on landing.
From the Green’s story:
“These planes are the same ones that our great-grandfathers flew,” said one Air Force Reserve officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s just a matter of time before a wing crumbles or the fuselage is over stressed.”
Although it clearly would have liked to hold onto the contract it was awarded last year, Northrop Grumman expresses support for Murtha’s idea:
A dual procurement scenario could replace the capability of the entire Air Force KC-135 fleet by the year 2022 – seven years sooner than best case single procurement strategy. … By procuring 24 aircraft per year from two contractors rather than 15 per year from a single source, as is the current Air Force budget plan, the service could save $7.2 billion in tanker Operating and Support (O&S) costs between 2012 and 2022 compared to the O&S costs associated with a single procurement strategy. Through dual procurement, the Air Force saves $10.2 billion in tanker O&S between 2012 and 2029, compared to the O&S costs associated with a single procurement strategy.
What’s Boeing’s take on a split buy?
The official response: “We haven’t taken a position on a split buy,” said Bill Barksdale, a spokesman for Boeing’s tanker program. “We are waiting to see what strategy they put forward.”
But there’s plenty of speculation on the Web that Boeing, too, could get behind a dual-award in order to beef up its 767 production.
Read the comments on analyst Scott Hamilton’s blog post about the tanker for one theory.
SPEEA, the company’s engineers union, also seems to think Boeing wants a split-buy.
