PAUL LEWIS /WASHINGTON DC
But project struggles to meet all requirements of US budget watchdogs
The US Air Force's proposed lease of up to 100 Boeing 767 tankers has sparked interest from potential international customers wanting to consider similar arrangements including Australia, says the manufacturer.
Talks between Boeing and the US government are still some way from an agreement that meets the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) criteria.
Royal Australian Air Force sources say the prospect of the USAF leasing 100 tankers and the possibility of leveraging from the resultant economies of scale has attracted attention in Canberra. Australia is due to release a request for proposals by the end of the year to replace its five Boeing 707-320Cs.
A Boeing official says: "Senior Australian officials have visited to look at this," adding that there are "other nations interested in the tanker". Boeing is also part of one of the two consortia competing for the UK Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft, which Australia also looked at before the UK delayed the programme by 18 months (Flight International, 25 June-1 July).
Meanwhile, Boeing is focused on sealing a deal with the USAF that will be acceptable to the OMB and Congress. The company had hoped to have secured a deal by now for a 10-year operating lease, but talks have become waylaid by OMB insistence that the USAF make provision for termination liability early in the lease. The USAF argues this negates the benefit of a lease.
The OMB adds that the lease payments value over the 10-years shall not exceed 90% of the fair value of the aircraft at the outset; that the term of the lease not exceed 75% of the economic life of the tanker; and that ownership remains with the lessor at the end of the lease. According to one industry supplier the deal has no better than a 50:50 chance of happening.
Boeing says it offered the USAF a deal requiring no payment ahead of delivery, providing for accelerated delivery, with interest rates set at commercially competitive levels and which will meet congressional and OMB requirements. The USAF would be given first refusal of the aircraft at a guaranteed purchase price. Furthermore, says Boeing, leasing 767s rather than re-engining and maintaining 130 Boeing KC-135Es will save the USAF around $5.5 billion.
Source: Flight International
