Analyst: KC-X last tanker contract for decades
Published 9:30 am Wednesday, October 20, 2010
The Air Force’s KC-X contest may be the Boeing Co. and EADS’s last chance for decades to land a tanker contract .
Defense analyst Rebecca Grant told media yesterday that she doubts the Air Force will go ahead with the two follow-on tanker contests it had planned. Originally, the Pentagon said it would replace 179 of its aging KC-135 tankers in the current KC-X contest. It would then hold two more contests, dubbed KC-Y and KC-Z, for 179 tankers each. The winner of the first contest, worth roughly $35 billion, was thought to have an edge for the next two.
But with declining defense budgets and a propensity for slowness on the part of the Air Force, Grant believes it unlikely the Pentagon will continue with the later tanker contests.
The Air Force has been trying to replace its KC135 fleet for a decade. It’s expected to pick a new tanker — either Boeing’s 767 based tanker or EADS’ A330-based tanker — next month.
Grant seemed to lean toward EADS’ larger tanker, which would be assembled in Mobile, Ala. She concludes that increased fuel-carrying capacity will be essential to the Air Force.
Boeing would assemble its 767-based tanker here in Everett. Although Boeing’s supporters say the Pentagon shouldn’t purchase a tanker from Europe’s EADS, Grant dismisses that argument in her “9 Secrets of the Tanker War,”> in which she notes that the military has been buying foreign jets for decades.
Ultimately, Grant concludes “the time for KC-X is now.” The government could be on the hook for up to $6 billion annually just to maintain the Eisenhower-era KC-135s.
In other tanker news, U.S. Aerospace said today that it won’t pursue litigation in the tanker bid. Earlier this month, U.S. auditors denied claims by the aerospace company that the Pentagon deliberately tried to block the delivery of the defense company’s bid. The Air Force said that U.S. Aerospace missed the deadline for bid submittals. The defense company said its delivery person was given bad directions by Air Force personnel.
