For Immediate Release

December 18, 2001

767 TANKER DEAL REACHED
IN HOUSE-SENATE CONFERENCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A key congressional panel today approved the proposal for the government to lease 100 new Boeing 767 tanker aircraft to replace a substantial portion of the Air Force's fleet of 40-year-old KC-135 tankers, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said Tuesday.

        The House-Senate conference committee deciding the fate of the defense appropriations bill for this year endorsed the leasing proposal as an alternative to an outright purchase of the planes in order to bring the aircraft into the fleet sooner and to reduce the government's up-front investment, said the congressman, who serves as a senior member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee.  The decision clears the way for final approval of the defense bill in both houses of Congress later this week.

       Rep. Dicks explained that the unusual arrangement -- leasing, rather than purchasing -- is rarely included in the defense budget, but that it was clearly in the best interests of the Air Force, which depends increasingly on tanker refueling to accomplish fighter, bomber and reconnaissance missions worldwide.

        "With more of our force now deployed in the continental United States, and with the risk of being locked out of forward air bases during potential conflicts, these tankers are the 'legs' that allow us to reach trouble spots around the globe," he said.  "And with the entire fleet of aerial refueling planes averaging more than 40 years old, we had to act promptly to continue to have this global reach," he added.

        The move also comes at an important time for the Boeing Company, he said, which has been severely affected by the airline industry decline since the September 11th tragedy and the resulting reduction of air travel.  "With the possibility of airlines' deferring orders for Boeing aircraft in the next few years, the start of this new tanker replacement program will help avoid future layoffs in the Puget Sound area," he said.  Dicks noted that the company has estimated that the Air Force work would support roughly 2,500 jobs at the Everett 767 plant and at other Boeing locations.

        In addition to the effort to replace the fleet of aerial tankers, the congressman said that he and the other members of the Washington State delegation in Congress - who all lobbied hard to seek approval of the tanker leasing plan - would also be exploring other uses of the 767 airframe as a replacement for other Air Force aircraft that are currently based on the old Boeing 707 airframes, largely constructed in the later 1950s and early 1960s.  These would include intelligence and surveillance aircraft such as the J-STARS and AWACS planes, he said.

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