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Boeing, Airbus Sprinting to the Finish Line

By John Noonan
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Looks like the two firms fighting for a new Air Force tanker contract are taking off the gloves:

With the Air Force ready to award a rich contract for a new fleet of tanker planes, the two bidders — The Boeing Co. and a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent EADS — are engaged in guerrilla marketing. Pentagon rules limit communications between the bidders and the Defense Department officials who will select a winner, once the companies submitted their final bids Jan. 3. The companies get around this restriction by sending blast e-mails to reporters and trade journals widely read by Air Force officials and by advertising in specialty publications, on buses and subways and local radio stations. It’s guerrilla marketing for the contract that could top $100 billion, making it potentially one of the largest defense programs in Pentagon history. The Air Force is scheduled to award the contract as soon as the end of this month.

I’m putting my money down on Boeing’s KC-767, though there are a few respected aviation wonks who think the Air Force will go with the Airbus KC-30. That’s a guess based more on the fact that we would have been flying KC-767s years ago had the government not tanked (har, no pun) the 767 leasing plan than it is a comparison of the capabilities of the two airframes. Plus, Japan and Italy are already buying the things, with Britain also showing strong interest. Either way, I’m just glad this long, painful KC-X soap opera is finally coming to a close. The whole sordid affair has been marked by Congressional controversy, corruption scandals, and a thoroughly confusing “aircraft leasing” plan, all while the USAF was flying 50 year old KC-135s. Time to get these birds in the fight (or at least close to it).

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