By Marina Malenic
Boeing [BA] said yesterday that it will offer the Air Force a wide-body version of a 767-based refueling aircraft in a proposal it plans to submit on May 10.
The company said it plans to modernize its 767 commercial aircraft with a new digital flight deck from its 787 Dreamliner and a new fly-by-wire refueling boom.
The Air Force last week unveiled the long-awaited solicitation for the KC-X tanker replacement fleet, making only minimal changes to a draft version of the request for proposals (RFP) released late last year.
“Boeing will deliver its proposal by May 10, within the 75-day period set forth in the terms of the solicitation,” the company said in a press release.
Pentagon officials have said an initial contract for 179 airplanes to replace the Eisenhower-era KC-135 could be worth up to $50 billion.
Representatives from the rival industry team, EADS North America and Northrop Grumman [NOC], have said the evaluation model that will be used by the Pentagon favors Boeing’s smaller plane.
Northrop Grumman-EADS won a contract to build 179 tankers based on the Airbus A330 for the Air Force in February 2008. The contract was canceled when U.S. auditors upheld a Boeing protest tied to Air Force missteps in evaluating bids. The Northrop Grumman-EADS team has threatened to walk away from the bidding if the final RFP is not altered substantially to make a Northrop Grumman-EADS bid viable from a business standpoint.
Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote said yesterday that the company “continues to work toward a bid/no-bid decision through a thorough analysis” of the bid solicitations and discussions with EADS North America. “We will announce our decision when the review is completed,” he added.
EADS CEO Sean O’Keefe told reporters yesterday en route to a visit to a company facility in Mississippi that the costs to the company in the U.S. tanker bidding are “pushing $200 million.”
Boeing said its 767 variant would offer a low-risk manufacturing option because Boeing plants in Kansas and Washington state are already primed for production. The company also highlighted that the aircraft would be more cost-effective to own and operate than an A330-based tanker because the 767 variant would burn 24 percent less fuel.
“That would save the military about $10 billion in fuel costs over 40 years,” Boeing said in a press release.
The company has delivered four KC-767Js to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and is on contract to deliver four KC-767s to the Italian Air Force. Three of the four Italian tankers are in flight test, with the fourth airplane in production.