|
For Immediate Release
March 29, 2002
AIR FORCE REJECTS AIRBUS PROPOSAL
TO COMPETE FOR AIR TANKER LEASE
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Air Force informed U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks [D-Wash.] Friday that it was intending to negotiate a lease for up to 100 Boeing 767 aerial refueling tanker aircraft, following its determination that a proposal from the European consortium Airbus Industrie would not meet Air Force requirements for the tanker program.
Rep. Dicks said he learned that the Air Force had concluded that the Airbus tanker proposal represented a higher technical risk and a less-preferred financial arrangement. He said that an Air Force statement regarding the leasing program [following this page] indicated that Airbus lacks experience building tankers and has not developed an aerial boom and operator station, making it a “significantly higher risk,” for the U.S. government.
In addition, the Air Force concluded that the Airbus plane would have a substantially larger ground footprint, without an increase in tank capacity, and that it would require a greater Air Force investment in infrastructure, Dicks said.
“Therefore I have urged the Air Force to proceed quickly to negotiate the terms of the lease for Boeing 767 tankers, as Congress stipulated in the passage of this year’s defense appropriations bill,” said the congressman, who serves as a senior member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “Our current fleet of KC-135 tankers is more than 40 years old and it is clearly in our best interests to replace them as quickly as possible,” Dicks said.
Air Force Statement on Tanker Leasing (28 March 2002)
STATEMENT ON TANKER LEASING
The results of the Air Refueling Tanker Request For Information (RF1) have clearly demonstrated that only the Boeing Corporation can currently meet the requirements of Section 8159 of the FY02 Appropriations Act. Therefore, the Commercial Derivative Air Refueling Aircraft (CDARA) team will proceed to negotiate a lease with Boeing and develop a business case. The results will be reported back to Congress in the summer of 2002.
The CDARA team concluded its analysis on the results of our RFI on air refueling aircraft. The RFIs were specifically released to Boeing and Airbus (EADS) to gauge the available technology to meet our air refueling requirements. This industry input was vital to properly bound and define the business case called for by the 2002 Appropriations Bill and determine if competition was practical.
The overall assessment of the RFI data shows that the EADS offering presents a higher risk technical approach and a less preferred financial arrangement. First, EADS lacks relevant tanker experience and needs to develop an air refueling boom and operator station, making their approach a significantly higher risk. Second, a comparison of the net present values of the aircraft recommended by Boeing and EADS establishes Boeing as the preferred financial option. Third, the size difference of the EADS-proposed KC-330 results in an 81% larger ground footprint compared to the KC-135E it would replace, whereas the Boeing 767 is only 29% larger. The KC-330 increase in size does not bring with it a commensurate increase in available air refueling offload. Finally, the EADS aircraft would demand a greater infrastructure investment and dramatically limits the aircraft's ability to operate effectively in worldwide deployment.
Representatives from EADS will receive a detailed debrief on the results of our analysis. The AF encourages EADS to continue their air refueling boom and other tanker developmental efforts in order to ensure a vibrant and fully competitive global defense industrial base well into the future.
Home >> Newsroom >> Press Releases
|
