EVERETT – There’s about $400 million-worth of annual economic impact in Washington state riding on a proposal the Boeing Co. handed over to the U.S. Air Force this week.
If successful in winning the $40 billion competition supplying the Air Force with aerial refueling tankers, Boeing officials say their program will support 9,000 Washington jobs.
Many of those positions would be direct jobs at the company’s Everett facility, where Boeing builds the commercial version of its KC-767 tanker.
“Obviously, we think one of our strengths is that this tanker would be built in the same building as the 767 with the same tooling as the 767 by the same workers,” said Mark McGraw, vice president of Boeing’s tanker program. “That equals lower risk for the Air Force.”
The Air Force wants to replace 179 of its aging fleet of KC-135 tankers, which are based on Boeing’s 707 plane.
Boeing will compete against partners Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. On Tuesday, the pair submitted a proposal for its KC-30, a tanker based on Airbus’ A330 commercial jet.
“The competition to build the KC-X is as much a competition of vision as it is of aircraft,” Scott Seymour, a vice president at Northrop, said in a statement. “The KC-30 Tanker will provide our Air Force leaders and combatant commanders with everything they have asked for air-to-air refueling and more. More refueling capacity, more versatility against the uncertain future; and more value per aircraft.”
Both Boeing and Northrop-EADS touted the versatility of their respective tankers. Boeing’s McGraw likened Boeing’s KC-767 to an SUV.
“You can drive it in the city, and you can take it off-roads,” McGraw said. And it can carry a decent amount of cargo and passengers, he said.
Northrop’s KC-30 resembles a RV, McGraw said. It can carry more people and more gear, but “it’s hard to park and burns a lot of gas,” he said.
Another major point of contention in the tanker debate centers on where the tankers will be built. Northrop-EADS will set up base in Mobile, Ala., where assembling the KC-30 for the Air Force could provide as many as 2,500 direct jobs. Nationwide, the KC-30 program would create up to 25,000 jobs, the duo says.
The KC-30 tanker will consist of about 52 percent American-made content with 48 percent coming from overseas.
About 85 percent of Boeing’s KC-767 tanker will be built in the United States, said Bill Barksdale, spokesman for the tanker program. Boeing workers in Everett will build a version of the company’s 767-200 Longer Range Freighter. The company’s Wichita, Kan., crew then will install military refueling systems and conduct flight tests of the tankers.
Neither Barksdale nor McGraw would say whether the 9,000 Washington jobs they say the KC-767 would support are new or existing jobs. They said the program would support 44,000 jobs nationwide in 35 states.
The Air Force is expected to announce the refueling tanker competition winner this fall.
Boeing initially won a contract with the Air Force a few years ago, but the competition was re-bid when it was revealed Boeing had offered a Pentagon weapons buyer jobs for her and her family in order to steer business its way.
Analysts generally tend to say that Boeing likely will win the Air Force competition again, listing a couple reasons: an international trade dispute and cost.
The United States, on Boeing’s behalf, has lodged complaints with the World Trade Organization alleging that Airbus received illegal government payments to offset the startup costs of some of its planes, including the A330. Some analysts have said that even if the Air Force awarded Northrop-EADS the contract, the U.S. Congress still wouldn’t fund the KC-30 program.
Analyst Paul Nisbet, with JSA Research in Rhode Island, offered his explanation of why the Air Force might select Boeing’s KC-767.
“It think the 767 is probably better fitted to the Air Force’s needs,” Nisbet said.
And “It’s $30 million to $40 million cheaper, so you can afford to buy more planes for the same money.”
For more on Boeing’s bid, visit reporter Michelle Dunlop’s aerospace blog at heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
