Douglas Barrie/LONDON
The Royal Air Force's airlift and tanker capabilities are to be revamped as a result of the UK's Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which could see the Vickers VC10 and Lockheed L1011 Tristar replaced earlier than originally planned, and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III enter RAFservice as a strategic transport.
Procurement plans for the RAF's tanker and transport fleets were revealed in the review, which was unveiled on 8 July.
The MoD intends to run the various procurement programmes in parallel, with "-requests for proposals to be issued later in 1998" and decisions to be taken by "early 2000". It adds that a request for information (RFI) for a new tanker aircraft is also to be issued.
The tanker RFI is certain to elicit proposals from Airbus Industrie and Boeing offering tanker/transport derivatives of commercial widebody aircraft. The MoD is likely to receive package proposals from at least some of the potential bidders. Airbus, for instance, may offer its Multi-Role Tanker Transport commercial widebody modification along with the proposed European Future Large Aircraft airlifter. Boeing could take a similar approach with the C-17 and a 767 tanker offering.
Source: Flight International
