By Ann Roosevelt
France is preparing to replace its fleet of air-refueling tankers and is currently reviewing its options and acquisition strategy, a military official said.
“We have to renew our tanker fleet,” French Air Force Maj. Gen. Gratien Maire, Defense Attaché at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Defense Writers Group yesterday.
France is considering buying 14 aircraft to replace its current fleet of Boeing [BA]-built KC-135RF aircraft.
“There is no specific timetable so far,” Maire said. “We know we have to do something.”
The process will move toward a request for information, then a competition. The French budget takes a joint approach, so while a tanker program would be mostly air force, other services might participate.
“I think it’s important for us as a military and as users to make sure that those types of equipment will be fully interoperable with the U.S. equipment,” he said.
Air-to-air refueling is a key military capability for coalition operations, and France has been reviewing what other countries have been doing as it moves on its own procurement, he said. For example, “we want to ensure we can have any type of air force fighters refueling on a French tanker, and French fighters can refuel on any type of tanker, because that’s the way it works on operations.”
Australia and the United Kingdom have both chosen the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) A330-200-based tankers.
EADS, teamed with Northrop Grumman [NOC], and Boeing have been embroiled in a battle over a new U.S. Air Force tanker, a program put on hold by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in September after Boeing successfully protested the EADS-Northrop Grumman contract award in June 2008.
While a new competition is to start in the United States later this year, Gates opposes a split tanker buy proposed by some powerful members of Congress, such as Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. Other members are strongly opposed to splitting the buy between the two competitors (Sept. 26, Jan. 9).
France is also reviewing financing the acquisition, Maire said.
For example, the United Kingdom is purchasing its 14 tankers under an approximately $19 billion private finance initiative with AirTanker Ltd. The A330s operate as air- to-air refuelers and will move British forces as passenger transport. When not required by the military, AirTanker can operate the aircraft on commercial jobs. Industry essentially owns and maintains the aircraft.
Australia’s A330 multi-role tanker transport provides in-flight refueling, and can transport forces, cargo, be used for medical evacuation and other missions. It is similar to the tanker proposed by EADS-Northrop Grumman for the United States.
“We’re still broadly considering the best way to get these 14 aircraft in the future,” Maire said.