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WASHINGTON: US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said on Wednesday he hoped both teams bidding for a $40 billion aerial tanker refueling competition would “stay in the game” for the longer term.
Moseley said the Air Force still planned to award a first contract for 179 tankers to a single winner.
But he said it was important that even the losing bidder remain engaged since the Air Force ultimately needed to replace over 500 of its aging KC-135 tankers, used to refuel fighter jets and other planes in mid-air.
“I want everybody to stay in the game,” Moseley told reporters after a House Armed Services Committee hearing.
“If you win, stay with us. If you don't win the first buy, stay with us because there will eventually be opportunities,” he said.
He said continued competition would help keep costs down in the longer run.
The tanker replacement program is the Air Force's No. 1 acquisition priority. It has been dragged out for years since a procurement scandal killed a $23.5 billion Air Force sole-source plan to lease and buy 100 Boeing KC-767s.
Boeing Co. is competing against a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent EADS to build a first batch of 179 tankers for the Air Force.
The overall effort to replace over 500 existing tankers over the next four decades could be worth more than $200 billion.
Moseley said the Air Force would probably wind up with a mixed fleet of tanker aircraft, just as it now operates smaller KC-135s and larger KC-10s.
Los Angeles-based Northrop had threatened to shun the competition until this month for fear it was skewed to favor Chicago-based Boeing.
The Northrop team is offering a modified Airbus A330 airliner, which is bigger and expected to be pricier than the Boeing candidate, a modified 767 passenger jet.
The contract for the first phase is to be awarded by late summer, to be followed by a competition for another batch of 180 to 200 planes, Moseley said.
