May Offer Tanker Based Off A330 Freighter
It's harder to hit a moving target. Should Boeing be successful
in lobbying the Pentagon for more time to develop a larger aerial
refueling tanker for the US Air Force KC-X competition -- to offer
an alternative to the tanker put forth by a consortium of Northrop
Grumman and EADS -- then those parties could also use that time to
develop an alternative of their own, Northrop said this week.
BusinessWeek reports insiders at Northrop are studying a tanker
based on the upcoming Airbus A330-200 Freighter... which wasn't on
the drawing board when Northrop/EADS offered its KC-330 for the
KC-X competition in 2006. Though similar in size to the passenger
version of the A330 on which the current plane is based, building
the tanker off the freighter platform would save time and money,
while also offering an incremental increase to the amount of fuel
the tanker could carry.
That proposal is part of a long-term strategy for EADS to
develop a foothold in the US defense market, and go toe-to-toe
against Boeing on cost. "We are looking at all of the options
available to us," Northrop spokesman Randy Belote told BusinessWeek
Thursday.
As ANN reported, Boeing threatened two weeks
ago to pull out of KC-X bidding completely, saying it needed more
time to develop an aircraft better suited to the
Pentagon's criteria on the tanker bid -- which
it believes will favor the larger KC-330, over Boeing's KC-767. If
it submits a revised bid, Boeing says it may consider a tanker
based off its larger 777 commercial airliner, or the long-range
767-400.
It is indeed likely the Pentagon will determine the larger
Northrop/EADS KC-330 offers the most bang for the procurement buck.
In particular, Air Force officials were swayed by the fact the
KC-330 can hold significantly more fuel for offload than the
smaller Boeing KC-767... despite the fact the Boeing plane matched
the USAF's original KC-X contract terms almost to the letter.
Many analysts believe Boeing's threat to pull out of the
competition to be a thinly-veiled political move, noting Northrop
employed a similar tactic in January 2007 when that company felt
the Air Force was giving preferential treatment to the homegrown
offering.
If Boeing withdrew, it would leave the Pentagon in the awkward
position of having only one competitor to chose from... which
doesn't give the DoD much leverage. Conversely, such a withdrawal
also poses significant issues for Boeing, as well, including the
fact such a move would put out a de facto welcome mat for
Northrop/EADS to move into the US defense market.
At this point, it's likely Boeing is pushing towards a stall --
pressuring the Pentagon to give them more time to develop another,
more competitive offering. There's little reason to doubt Northrop
would use that time to its best advantage, as well.
"If they do intend to offer a different platform, they would
benefit from the same kind of reasonable timeframe for development
of proposals that we have requested," said Boeing spokesman Daniel
Beck. "So why should they be so adamant that this be rushed?"
Boeing said it would defer a final decision after seeing the
Pentagon's revised criteria for the contract, which might come some
time next week. The Department of Defense also said this week it
would give both companies more time to submit proposals based on
that criteria.
Politicos note such a delay would push the final decision on the
matter into the next presidential administration and Congress...
which could prove problematic for Boeing, if John McCain wins the
November election. The Republican senator led the investigation
that scrapped Boeing's original tanker victory in
2003, after revelations of shady dealings came to
light.