Italian KC-767 tanker slips

September 9, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Italy, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, logistics, production program 

Boeing will face financial penalties from Italy as delivery of their KC-767 tankers have slipped 36 months. Originally planned for a 2005 delivery the first won’t be ready until late 2008. Issues with the pod holding the drogue refueling system and also meeting some of the Italian specific requirements that are set higher then the FAA’s have caused the delays. This will not help with the Boeing bid on the USAF new tanker.

See Bloomberg.com for more.

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Boeing’s KC-767 Advanced Tanker Video

September 6, 2008 by Jay · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corp., Video 

Last week, we gave you Northrop Grumman’s tanker advertisement. This week, also courtesy of YouTube, we give you a video of Boeing’s KC-767 tanker in action.

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Boeing and KC-45 in turmoil

August 22, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, Department of Defense, EADS, GAO, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Proposal, Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, logistics, production program 

After meeting with DoD and the US Air Force to discuss the new tanker RFP due to the GAO upholding their protest, Boeing is now saying that without significantly more time to prepare a proposal they may have to drop out. The new schedule is for the Boeing and Northrop Grumman teams to submit by the end of October with a decision before the new calendar year. Boeing is saying that they may need to bid a larger aircraft then the KC-767 proposed last time due to the fuel capacity and range requirements. A variant of the 777 would have to be used. Boeing supposedly is asking for a more then 180 day delay in the submissions. EADS and Northrop Grumman will most likely submit a tweaked version of their original winning proposal.

For more see The Wichita Business Journal and WashingtonPost.com.

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Global Warming favors Boeing

May 26, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, GAO, Military Aviation, Northrop Grumman Corp., Promotions, Protest, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, development program, logistics, production program 

According to this article a Washington Democratic Congressman wants to introduce legislation that requires the DoD to evaluate the “green house gas” emissions when awarding defense contracts. If this had been done as part of the KC-45 award, then Boeing would have won as nominally the KC-767 emits less harmful gases then the larger A330. Read more

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Reaction to the KC-X award

February 29, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Contract Awards, EADS, Northrop Grumman Corp., U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, logistics 

Here are some links that are commenting on the win by Northrop Grumman and EADS.

http://www.aero-news.net/ - KC-45A Wins Deal Over Boeing’s KC-767 Note: I think no matter what aircraft was chosen it would be called the KC-45A.

Wichita, KS News on MSNBC - Key phrase from Sen Roberts of KS: “”I am deeply troubled by the Air Force’s decision to award the KC-X tanker to a French company that has never built a tanker in its history. We should have an American tanker built by an American company with American workers. I can not believe we would create French jobs in place of Kansas jobs.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer - “Tanker award caps tumultuous period” - Good round up of the history of the KC-X program.

Leeham Company LLC Analysis by Scott Hamilton - “Boeing will be out of the tanker business for the next 20-40 years if it loses the KC-45A
award, its spokesman predicted, which helps explain why Boeing is fighting so hard to win the competition.”

Oh yeah, how they feel at Northrop Grummand and EADS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX5oqEfAydg

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Boeing reported as submitting last KC-X proposal

January 3, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Boeing, Proposal, U.S. Air Force, commercial aviation, production program 

Reported here that Boeing submitted their latest, and last, proposal for the KC-X tanker requirement. Boeing had proposed a 767 based solution in the past, but had also mooted a 777 version as well. Competition comes from Airbus, which submitted a variant of the A340 for this RFP. The tanker replacement program has been controversial since 2002, when originally the Air Force planned to just lease 100 or so 767’s to replace the aging KC-135. That idea was rejected by Congress and led to the current competition.

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