At long last I have seen the executive summary of the long-awaited analysis of alternatives for replacing the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 tanker fleet. It doesn’t tell us much that Congressman Norm Dicks didn’t tell us about six weeks ago. What the Rand Corp. said is:
* The best options are converted airliners;
* Either Boeing or Airbus jets would work;
* There’s no reason not to split the order between different aircraft types or manufacturers;
* There are reasons to doubt it’s feasible to keep 1950s-era KC-135s flying until 2040, as some have suggested;
* There are several reasons in favor of moving quickly to replace tankers, but the reason to delay is a big one — a budget crunch.
For me, the biggest news was that the report specifically rules out 737 tankers (A320-family tankers too, for that matter). Smaller tankers aren’t cost-effective, the report said. Neither are jumbo tankers based on Airbus’ A380.
Scott Hamilton has a copy of the executive summary on his Web site: http://www.leeham.net. There’s a link on his home page, over on the left.
And after reading that, you can check out the reaction from Mobile, Ala., the home of the proposed EADS/Northrop Gruman tanker program. The Mobile Register there reported that the Rand analysis “bolsters Mobile’s chances.” http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1141813385303340.xml&coll=3
Key Quote: “‘Northrop Grumman remains confident that its KC-30 multirole, advanced tanker transport system, to be built in Mobile, will be very competitive in an aerial refueling tanker replacement program,’ said Northrop spokesman Jim Stratford.”
And in case you aren’t one of the wise ones who gets The Herald delivered to your door each morning (you can fix that pretty easily, you know http://www.heraldnet.com/subscribenew/ ), here’s a link to my column on tankers today: http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/06/03/08/100bus_corliss001.cfm
Key Quote: “One thing’s for certain, Thompson said: The tanker deal is a tangled mess. ‘For God’s sake,’ he said, ‘all we’re doing is buying some modified commercial aircraft, and we’ve turned it into the Manhattan Project.’”
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