Pentagon moves forward on tanker studies

Hey, you know what we haven’t talked about in a long time? Tankers. I had a little free time to get caught up on my reading, and over at Scott Hamilton’s site — www.leeham.net — I spotted two tanker stories.

The first, from Reuters http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601449.html notes that the Pentagon got the long-awaited analysis of alternatives from the Rand Corp. on Monday, and plans to spend the next two months studying it before making any decisions on buying new tankers for the U.S. Air Force.

The force behind this, of course, was the ill-fated, scandal-plagued, political football of a 767 tanker deal. At one point, it seem that Boeing was going to land contracts to build 400 or more KC-767 tankers for the United States and its allies — all of them rolling out of the factory here in Everett — but now, who knows?

Key Quote: “The future of any new tanker replacement program remains uncertain, given budgetary pressures on the military and especially the Air Force … The focus on tankers has also shifted, with Air Force officials saying the service needs to ensure the proper mix of smaller and larger tankers, like its 59 KC-10 Extender tankers, which can carry more fuel and fly longer distances.”

Boeing’s KC-767 and EADS’ proposed KC-330 are the leading candidates to get converted to tanker use, Reuters said, but there’s also talk now of trying out a 777- or A340-based refueling platform.

And speaking of Airbus, parent company EADS is looking for Northrup Gruman to be their U.S. partner in their proposed tanker program, but Northrup has yet to commit to the project. TheHill.com reports http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/081705.html that Northrup’s under heavy political pressure to not get involved.

Key Quote: “‘We have heard point blank that this may not be a good thing to bring an international aircraft into this program,’ said a Northrop Grumman official, who asked not to be quoted by name.”

The sense I get from the two stories is that the Pentagon is a good year away from making a decision on a tanker buy. The good news for Boeing-Everett is that the company has landed enough 767 orders to keep the assembly line limping along at the rate of one plane a month until well into 2007, which means that the 767s will be there, if the Air Force wants them.

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