Airbus takes US Tanker Contract

[Charl]

The unthinkable has happened.
Boeing has lost the US Air Force Contractfor tanker aircraft.
At a time when the US economy is in trouble, this must be particularly galling to Seattle politicians.
Northrop-Grumman will build the C-45A Tanker in Mobile, Alabama.
Most importantly for Airbus, this allows them a US-based manufacturing facility which makes the A330 freighter viable.
They have been hurt by the poor US Dollar exchange rate, and this is exactly the opportunity they needed for the commercial aircraft.
Even allowing for the usual pork-barrel politics which drive these decisions, the A330 must be one hellava aeroplane to have achieved this.
(It is.)

[pois0n]

OMGWTF?

[h290master]

shock! horror!

[Naki]

A biggy for Airbus - the A350 is quite a bit bigger and I would expect more up to date than what Boeing was proposing - a 767 derivative - maybe they should of gone for a tanker version of the 777 or 787. I guess thats the end then of 767 production .

The A350 tanker has already on order for the RAAF, RAF (although that has stalled), the United Arab Emirates and Saudia Arabia .

[Charl]

Not often you catch Naki out...
Paul the tanker is based on the A330 (not A350 which is the 787 competitor.)

This was the most brilliant bit of marketing seen in recent times...
You will recall that Boeing had already started supplying 767's to the US Air Force on a "Lease" basis.
Somehow Airbus convinced Congress to pull the plug on the "Done Deal" and re-evaluate the planes.
They then put up a flypast (at Farnborough if I recall), complete with booms and drogues and fighters attached, which clinched the Oz deal.
The others followed like falling dominoes.
In fact it was all bluff, they were not much further advanced than Boeing themselves with the tanker conversion.

[Naki]

whoops - you are quite right!

Apparently there was some corruption allegations & colusion etc between Boeing senior excutives and the USAF (or the DOD not sure) and a few of the senior guys & gals were fired from Boeing as a result of the lease deal - which eventually went kaput.

Japan and Italy are the only operaters of 767 tankers although the proposed USAF verison was more advanced I believe.

[SUBS17]

767 is not suitable for what the US has in mind for it thats why they picked the A330 for the KC45A.

[AlisterC]

Very interesting indeed. One online news source I read says that Boeing can still appeal against the deal, but who knows what good it will do them.

[Charl]

QUOTE (Albatross @ Mar 5 2008, 06:19 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very interesting indeed. One online news source I read says that Boeing can still appeal against the deal, but who knows what good it will do them.

Well of course they have.
Big Time
I think the US Air Force was extremely pissed at Boeing for being found out, early in the scandal (that led to some very senior resignations) and picked the A330 as a way of keeping their noses clean.
There's a lot to a multibillion $ evaluation of course, but the bit that caught my eye is the fact that the evaluation model is developed and maintained by Northrop Grumman.
You know, the EADS partner in the US who would build the A330...
They "changed" the model in the second evaluation round, to "allow for a bigger aircraft"
Sheesh...

[Daniel]

This was an un expected call.
Boeing thought that would get it easily but the USAF has surprised many.
Boeing shouldn't waste there time trying to appeal, "they didn't buy our aircraft so we will make a big fuss"

[Anthony]

I have heard for a while that the Americans were looking more seriously at the Airbus option than the Boeing option, but I didn't know which way they would actually go.
It's a bit of a blow for Boeing - they're the country's national aircraft manufacturer and they lost the contract for the nation's air force.
The 787 looks like quite a hit though, so it's not too bad for Boeing.
Northrop Grumman is still involved so it's also not like the US Air Force is a traitor to the Europeans or anything.

[Naki]

Its under appeal at the moment and the indication is that the whole prcess for tendering will have to restart (in the meantime the very old KC-135s start to fall to bits).. so Airbus havent got it won yet.........