Stewart Penney/LONDON
Teams competing for the UK's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) have undergone a series of changes as they prepare to respond to the UK Ministry of Defence's invitation to negotiate. Last month ITNs were given to four consortia bidding for the £9 billion ($13.2 billion) FSTA - a programme to supply the Royal Air Force with up to 30 in-flight refuellers over 25 years from 2004. FSTA will replace BAC VC10 and Lockheed TriStar tankers.
Rolls-Royce, which was competing as Air Reach, and EADS have joined the EuroTanker consortium, which has been renamed AirTanker. The group includes Cobham, with its flight refuelling subsidiary supplying the tanker equipment, service company Brown &Root and avionics specialist, Thales Defence, which is expected to provide mission planning, datalinks, defensive aids and synthetic training systems.
EADS will provide green aircraft. Although the consortium says its "proposal will be based on the latest generation of Airbus widebodied aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Trent engines", suggesting the A330 will be the final choice, AirTanker sources say the offer will include a series of options and it is possible that the solution will include a number of aircraft types. Rolls-Royce says it decided to drop its Air Reach proposal as it feels AirTanker offers a stronger, more complete fleet focussed on an Airbus platform.
The 30 aircraft are needed to provide the RAF with "surge capacity" and a number of aircraft will be available for the winning competitor to lease to other users including commercial freight operations. Sources within the bidders suggest that it will be difficult to find work for the spare aircraft and discussions have been held with companies able to provide additional aircraft at short notice. The winning proposal could be based on 20 aircraft with leased in surge capacity.
Meanwhile, BAE Systems is believed to be about to announce a formal tie up with Boeing to offer a 767 based proposal. The UK-based company started FSTA linked with Raytheon on an Airbus A310 bid but it appears to have dropped the US concern from the team. Raytheon says its is still pursuing an FSTA role as a major sub-contractor.
The fourth consortium invited to bid was the Serco-led SSM which also includes Spectrum Capital with a proposal based around ex-British Airways 767s.
Source: Flight International
