EVERETT — The Boeing Co. and its Everett-built KC-767 on Tuesday took some jabs from its rival for an aerial refueling tanker contract with the U.S. Air Force.
“We’re about to the final stage,” said Paul Meyer, a Northrop Grumman vice president. “This is a tremendous competition for the nation.”
With an Air Force decision expected as early as mid-February, Northrop’s Meyer outlined at a press briefing why the company’s KC-30, built in conjunction with European Aeronautic Defence &Co., beats Boeing’s KC-767. The briefing came just a day after EADS announced that it would bring additional work to Alabama — where the duo will build their tanker — if the KC-30 wins the $40 billion competition. Should Boeing win, the contract would extend the life of the 767 and ensure Everett employees work even if the commercial jet industry slows this year as anticipated.
Long considered the underdog to win the bid, Northrop-EADS says its KC-30 tanker offers both better reliability and value than the KC-767. Meyer further challenged the rationale that Boeing should win based on feelings of nationality.
Boeing built the KC-135 aerial refueling tankers that the Air Force intends to replace due the age of the KC-135 fleet. The agency wants 179 new tankers. Chicago-based Boeing has emphasized its experience in tanker work as reason the Air Force should choose the KC-767.
“Boeing hasn’t delivered a tanker since 1966,” Meyer said. “How many of those employees are still on the rolls today?”
Boeing’s Bill Barksdale, spokesman for the 767 tanker program, noted that Meyer discounts the company’s production of the KC-10, derived from a Douglas Aircraft Co. commercial DC-10 jet. Boeing acquired the line through a merger.
Meyer also pointed to the problems that Boeing has run into building tankers for the governments of Italy and Japan. Boeing has struggled with technical troubles and customer-specified certification issues on the tankers. It has not delivered the 767-based tankers to either country.
Barksdale acknowledged that Boeing has faced challenges on the Italian and Japan tankers, but said the company intends to deliver the first 767 tanker to Japan this quarter. “We know we need to do better than Italy and Japan,” he said.
The company maintains that it learned valuable lessons from the foreign tanker missteps — lessons that will allow Boeing to build the 767 tanker successfully.
EADS also has won foreign tanker contracts, snagging a Saudi Arabia bid for three tankers just last week. The company’s A330-based tanker for the Royal Australian Air Force, which uses the same boom as its KC-30, is in flight test, Meyer said. As a result, Northrop believes its tanker carries less risk than Boeing’s. “We’re ready now,” Meyer said.
Supporters of Boeing have been critical of Northrop-EADS, partly because EADS is the parent company of Boeing’s commercial rival, Airbus, which is based in Toulouse, France. The duo intend to assemble the KC-30 in Mobile, Ala. On Monday, EADS announced it also would assemble Airbus A330 freighters in Alabama, should it and Northrop win.
The EADS facility in Mobile, which would be expanded to 2 million square feet, could handle as many four aircraft a month between tanker and freighter production. The A330 freighter, launched just last year, has more than 60 orders.
With a growing aerospace work force for its tanker in Alabama, Meyer says the American-made argument for Boeing isn’t valid. Northrop-EADS project their tanker supports 25,000 jobs in the United States. Boeing says its KC-767 supports 44,000.
“Is it really about buying American?” Meyer said.
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