Four Cities Chosen In Airbus Tanker Competition
EADS North America's
competition to select a US industrial site to support the KC-330
advanced tanker program has been narrowed to locations in four
states, which have been asked to provide additional information in
a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued Tuesday.
The selected site would become the center of industrial activity
for the KC-330, which EADS North America is offering to the US Air
Force as a replacement for the KC-135 refueling fleet. The facility
will begin operations in 2006 with the establishment of an aircraft
engineering center.
Finalist sites and states receiving RFPs are Mobile Downtown
Airport, Mobile, Alabama
- Melbourne International Airport, Melbourne, Florida
- Stennis International Airport, Kiln, Mississippi
- Charleston International Airport, North Charleston, South
Carolina
EADS North America initiated the KC-330 industrial site
selection process with a Request for Information (RFI) issued to
all 50 states in January 2005. Over 70 candidate locations from 32
states responded to the RFI. Today's RFP release to finalist
locations marks the next step in the company's selection process,
which is being managed on behalf of EADS North America by The
Staubach Company -- an international real estate and management
firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas.
"Issuing the RFP to a short-list of highly qualified candidate
locations is a significant milestone in the tanker industrial
facility site selection process," said Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., EADS
North America's Chairman and CEO. "We were extremely pleased with
the number and variety of responses we received in the
competition's first phase. Each proposed site reflected the high
quality of industrial capability in the United States, and
reinforced our commitment to establish a major aircraft assembly
center in the United States to produce tankers for the US Air
Force.
"After careful evaluation, four locations emerged as the sites
most capable of meeting the transportation, personnel and
manufacturing demands of large military aircraft assembly. We
express our thanks to each state and local government that
responded to the RFI. The site we ultimately select will be our
partner in creating the US industrial capacity necessary to produce
the best, most capable aerial refueling tanker aircraft for the US
Air Force," Crosby added.
The selection process has been accelerated in order to align
EADS North America's industrial activities with the potential
acquisition schedule of the US Air Force. The four states that
received the RFP will have approximately 3 weeks in which to
respond. Following the receipt of RFP inputs, EADS North America
will conduct a final evaluation leading to selection of the winning
location by July 2005.
EADS North America previously announced that it will team with
US industrial partners, and has committed to establishing assembly
and support facilities in the United States that could eventually
employ more than 1,000 persons.
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