EADS and Northrop Grumman have formally teamed up to compete against Boeing for a massive US Air Force KC-135 tanker replacement contract that is again embroiled in a political dispute.
Northrop has agreed to offer the KC-30 – a modified Airbus A330 previously promoted as the KC-330 – with EADS as its “principal subcontractor and team-mate”. Perhaps aiming at Buy America supporters, Northrop says the team would generate 1,000 jobs in the USA and broaden the US industrial base for widebody aircraft.
EADS North America has previously announced plans to open a tanker assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.
The facility would be big enough to assemble 24 aircraft a year, although the USAF programme currently calls for a maximum of 15 a year.
Meanwhile, the USAF’s acquisition planning for the tanker programme is facing criticism.
Air force leaders have withdrawn a request for information on next-generation tanker concepts after lawmakers complained that a required review of a tanker analysis of alternatives has not been completed.
Outgoing USAF chief of staff Gen John Jumper said late last month that the tanker requirements study could radically change the service’s acquisition plans, noting that the study could call for increased use of large-capacity tankers such as its existing McDonnell Douglas KC-10s.
Source: Flight International
