Boeing will reveal more details here today about the NewGen Tanker, its entry for the third round of the U.S. Air Force KC-X competition. In the war of words accompanying the long-running and ill-starred contest, Boeing has not previously specified exactly how it will add a digital 787-style cockpit and a new fly-by-wire boom to the 767 airframe. Rival contender EADS North America (EADS NA) has again bid the A330MRTT, as the KC-45. In a pointed reference to the Boeing NewGen Tanker, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said in London on Saturday that “a large part of our development cost and risk are behind us…compared to our competitor.” The bids were delivered on July 8 and 9.
EADS has evidently put aside earlier concerns that the Pentagon’s bid terms were skewed in favor of the smaller 767. Northrop Grumman thought otherwise, ending its partnership with the European company for the KC-X and obliging EADS NA to bid as prime contractor. But Gallois expressed his confidence in the bid process. “I’ve been very impressed with the way the Pentagon is working with us. I think that their judgment will be fair,” he said. EADS NA chief executive officer Sean O’Keefe added, “The A330MRTT is 90 percent common with our KC-45 offer. It would be a quintessential off-the-shelf procurement of the kind that the Department of Defense seeks.”
More In Aircraft
