Fuel tank key to win Air Force tanker bid

LONDON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The key to winning the U.S. Air Force's $35 billion KC-X tanker competition is fuel capacity, an expert said.

A tanker with a larger fuel tank can fly farther and has more fuel available for waiting jets, key in long-haul missions in the Middle East or Asia, writes Rebecca Grant, president of IRIS Independent Research, a small security industry think tank in Washington.

"Factors like extra fuel and endurance of KC-X will be especially valuable," to win the competition that pits Boeing against European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., the parent of European plane maker Airbus, Grant writes in her new paper "9 Secrets of the Tanker War."

For the past nine years, both companies have been locked in an intense battle over the contract to outfit the Air Force with 179 in-flight refueling tankers.

The Americans are bidding with an altered version of its Boeing 767, called New Generation Tanker. The Europeans are throwing their KC-45 tanker, a large plane based on the Airbus A330, in the race.

The New Generation Tanker is slightly smaller and probably cheaper than the KC-45 and has received substantial support from U.S. lawmakers; the European plane has logged more flight testing hours and is closer to serial production, experts say. Because it's larger, it's expected to also have a bigger fuel tank.

Both companies filed their bids by July 9, after the Air Force had granted EADS a 60-day bidding extension because its American partner, Northrop Grumman, pulled out of the competition. The Los Angeles company left saying the bidding conditions clearly favor Boeing, a claim denied by U.S. officials.

The Air Force initially said it would award the contract in the fall -- despite the 60-day extension for EADS. It has since had to push back that date to Nov. 12.

U.S. lawmakers have in the past argued against EADS, saying the contract should be awarded to Boeing to secure U.S. jobs.

In her new paper, Grant writes that the KC-X contract will keep Americans working in the aerospace industry, no matter who wins it.

"The idea of an 'American-made' plane is an illusion that doesn't reflect the longstanding reality of how aircraft are manufactured," she writes. "Aircraft manufacturing went global in the 1980s. The aerospace industry in America relies on a global supply chain of supplier firms. In turn, American suppliers send parts to big international firms."

Boeing claims its tanker program will employ 50,000 Americans. EADS claims its plan will employ 48,000 Americans.

Grant also warned the industry that because of overstretched military budgets, the U.S. Air Force might go ahead with the KC-X tanker and ditch plans for two more rounds of tankers, called KC-Y and KC-Z.

"That was before defense budgets ballooned during the Iraq war and the global recession hit," she writes. "Even if the United States buys more than the 179 tankers in KC-X, those buys are two decades away."