Boeing, Northrop on Air Force tankers
Published 11:47 am Wednesday, December 17, 2008
At the Reuters Aerospace Summit this week, everybody’s talking tankers.
Boeing’s Jim Albaugh thinks the Air Force should set requirements and choose a the lowest cost tanker that meets those needs, in this Reuters story.
Earlier this week, Northrop Grumman’s Ron Sugar told attendees at the summit that the Air Force should quickly restart the contest and pick the tanker that offers the best value, Reuters reports.
Boeing’s Albaugh said today that a competition based on the “best value tanker” could lead to further protests.
Speaking of protests, Albaugh also thinks the country’s defense procurement process needs fixing, in this Reuters report. Boeing, of course, successfully protested the last tanker go-round this spring. And the company just launched a protest over its loss to Lockheed Martin of a $1.1 billion satellite bid.
Lastly, the British government is in talks with EADS to speed up delivery of its Airbus A330-based tanker, in this story. EADS, the parent company of Airbus, had joined forces with Northrop in the U.S. Air Force tanker competition with an A330-derived offering. Airbus has seen significant delays to its A400M military transport, leading Britain to seek to speed up deliveries of the tanker instead.
