Tanker News
Aviation Week (6/19, Butler) reported the two companies vying for the US Air Force contract to build refueling tankers for military jets, Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS North America, disagree on the prospect of a "low-price, technically acceptable" (LPTA) competition. While Boeing endorses the LPTA approach, which "calls for both entrants to qualify for threshold requirements and then engage in a price shoot-out", Ralph Crosby, CEO of EADS North America said it "'works for pencils and tablets [but] is a flawed concept' for a military system." Both companies are developing tankers based on their commercial platforms adapted for military use. While they are open to a "dual buy" result, "Defense Secretary Robert Gates...is adamant that he wants a single winner" of the contract.
Flight International (6/21, Timble) reported Boeing and Northrop gave the "first public glimpses of their competitive strategies" to win the USAF contract. Boeing plants to build a tanker off of either its 767 or 777-200ER platform, and is "studying even the General Electric GEnx engine family to power" the final choice. Meanwhile, "Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team, by contrast, revealed itself as locked even more narrowly on the foundation of its initially successful previous proposal," a KC-30 tanker based on the "A330-200 passenger-to-freighter model powered by GE CF6-80s."
