The competition for the new Air Force refueling tanker may not be over. And there appears to be several issues that haven’t been addressed so far. The contract for the new generation Air Force refueling tanker, the one that is slated to replace the aging KC-135 is in controversy.
The winner for the contract for the new tanker was announced to be Northrup Grummond/Airbus. Which was disheartening on the surface, because of the long term relationship that Boeing has had with the Air Force, and the fact that Airbus has had the benefit of being supported by several European Governments, and not having to compete in the open, like Boeing has.
Boeing has been a patriotic American Company, and remained committed to providing quality products for the United State Military.
You would think that those items in themselves would be concern enough. Yes? Oh, but in the “Truth is Stranger than Fiction” category it gets better. You see, the Airbus plane, the A330 is a big plane. A Big plane.
Did I mention it’s a big plane?
It would be one thing if it was a little bigger. But it is heavier, taller, wider, larger than the KC-135 or the competition KC-767 (Boeing’s entry.) It is so much larger that it falls into the FAA group 5, the largest size of aircraft. This means that there will be requirements for wider taxiway clearance, from 259 feet to 320 feet. It means that the shoulder clearance pavement area will have to be increased from 25 feet to around 35 feet.
Someone needs to inform the public that on some military bases, there are literally buildings that will have to be moved, new areas paved, not to mention the increase in cost for new hangers, estimated conservatively to be around 1 million dollars per hanger. So there is hidden costs amounting maybe in the millions of dollars. You cant just buy a plane that is huge without a lot of infrastructure changes, building changes, and most of all expensive changes.
Gee. I guess I am glad that Boeing is appealing the decision, and the public is slowly catching on. I just hope it is not to late to change back to the company who has had the contract for the last thirty years.
