Keep buying those Japanese cars, Army!
Boeing loses tanker to Northrop Grumman-EADS team
BY MOLLY MCMILLIN
The Wichita Eagle
Boeing Co. was passed over today in the battle for a multibillion-dollar aerial tanker contract, Sen. Pat Roberts told The Eagle.
The Department of Defense selected a bid from the team of Northrop Grumman and EADS, the parent company of Airbus, over Boeing to provide the Air Force with a new fleet of refueling tankers, Roberts said.
Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a Washington, D.C. -based organization said he was told the same thing by "authoritative government sources."
Boeing’s Wichita facility would have housed a finishing center to assemble and test the tankers. That was expected to create 300 to 500 jobs.
The contract also was expected create another 500 jobs with local suppliers, including Spirit AeroSystems.
Overall, the economic impact to Kansas would have been about 3,800 jobs and $14 million a year, Roberts and U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt said last month.
The new tankers are vital, Air Force officials say. By the end of the decade, the Air Force’s current fleet of 531 KC-135 and 59 KC-10 aircraft will reach an average age of 50 years old.
In choosing the KC-30 tanker — based on the Airbus A330 commercial airliner — the Air Force chose a larger airplane than Boeing’s offering, which was based on the 767 commercial airliner.
Experts expect Boeing to file a protest.