For Immediate Release

October 8, 2004

DEFENSE BILL CONFERENCE AGREEMENT
KEEPS KC-767 TANKER OPTION ALIVE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House-Senate conferees writing the final version of the defense authorization bill this week have preserved the Pentagon’s option to purchase 100 KC-767 aerial refueling tankers in the next year, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said Friday.

            The congressman said the compromise language eliminates the option of leasing tankers but that it allows the Air Force to begin purchasing up to 100 tankers when all of the previously-ordered studies are completed.   Those reviews include a RAND Corp. analysis of alternatives, a Defense Science Board review, a National Defense University (NDU) study, the DOD Inspector General’s report and a mission capability study conducted by DOD’s Transportation Command.  Dicks said “three of these five – the IG report, the NDU study and the DSB review – are already finished and the others should be completed by the end of the year.”

            According to the language adopted by the House-Senate panel and referred for final approval today in each chamber, the Secretary of Defense is empowered to initiate the procurement of the Boeing 767 tankers after the studies are finished, as long as he agrees with the essential conclusions of those reviews.   Language mandating another round of studies, inserted into the Senate version of the bill earlier by Senator McCain, was deleted by the conferees, “who understand the urgency of the need to begin replacing the 44-year old fleet of refueling jets,” Rep. Dicks stated.

            “Despite the controversy surrounding the actions of a Pentagon official initially involved in the tanker acquisition program, the need to replace the tankers that give our Air Force the ability to meet worldwide threats remains compelling,” the congressman added.  He also said that he and colleagues on the defense appropriations subcommittee had inserted a total of $100 million into this year’s defense appropriations bill to allow for action on the tanker program when the authorization language was resolved, and that the funds would be available to the Secretary of Defense immediately. 
[Appropriations language: http://www.house.gov/dicks/news/defensefy05conf.htm]

            Dicks said that a new contract to purchase the tankers would have to be negotiated, but that the process would benefit from the substantial bargaining that occurred between the Air Force and Boeing since the initial decision to buy the planes was made by Congress in late 2001.

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