EADS has warned that using the lowest price, technically acceptable (LPTA) criterion to decide the US Air Force's controversial KC-X tanker competition could act against the interests of US forces.

The criterion "works for pencils and tablets, but with regard to the benefit of the armed forces of the USA, it is a flawed concept", said EADS North America chief executive Ralph Crosby at the group's pre-show media seminar.

Crosby argues the system does not give competitors any credit for capabilities above the set technical threshold. He says trading price against capability should be the objective of the defence acquisition system.

While "it is not absolutely clear" that the Department of Defense would adopt LPTA, there were "some indications that it might", said Crosby. Adoption of LPTA would be "both injurious to the defence acquisition process and a damned bad thing for the soldiers and sailors and airmen of the US armed forces", he claims.

Nevertheless EADS remains bullish on its chances of victory in the reopened competition. "We are in; we're going to win," said Crosby. "We won once. The parameters haven't changed."

According to Crosby, the A330-based solution developed jointly by EADS and Northrop Grumman, the KC-45, offers fuel offload of 69,500kg (153,000lb) at 1,850km (1,000nm), compared with 53,120kg for Boeing's rival offering, the KC-767. He claims that fuel delivered per kg of fuel burned at 1,8500nm is around 0.86kg for the KC-45 and 0.72kg for the KC-767, while time-on-station at 1,850km is 14h for the KC-45 and 11.5h for its competitor.

A draft request for proposal for the tankers is expected as soon as next month. On the possibility of the order being split between the competitors, Crosby says: "If somebody gives us an order, we'll take it, so long as the order's of large enough size and at a production rate that makes sense. It's up to the US government to decide how they want to buy this." He adds: "There's one side of this deal that's much more interested in not having the other guy get anything. It ain't us!"

Speaking before Crosby, EADS chief executive Louis Gallois claimed that if creation of US jobs were a criterion in the tanker decision process, it would benefit his company. "We are creating more jobs than our competitor in the USA," he argued.

Source: Flight Daily News