WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- The U.S. Air Force has launched a process to select replacements for its current air tanker fleet.
The Air Force on Tuesday released a long-awaited document asking for reaction from industry on a wide range of options to replace the service's fleet of 1950s-era aerial refueling tankers, CongressDaily reported.
The "request for information" is the first official outreach to industry in a year-long process to select a contractor, or perhaps contractors, to update the tanker fleet, the report said. As expected, the document explores purchasing both new and used commercial aircraft, as well as leasing tanker services from contractors and upgrading engines and other parts in some of the Boeing KC-135s now in use, it said.
A Senate aide called the document a "good first step" and lauded the Air Force for considering several approaches to upgrading its tanker fleet.
But the so-called RFI may not reveal what the Air Force ultimately wants in its long-sought fleet of modern tankers. The document is "comforting to those that want the Air Force to pursue a wide range of options and not to walk down a particular path prematurely," Christopher Bolkcom, a Congressional Research Service analyst who monitors the Air Force, told CongressDaily.
The breadth of the request could indicate that the Air Force may opt for a mixed fleet of new and used aircraft augmented by leasing some services, the Senate aide said. The goal should be to find the most efficient and cost-effective solution, the congressional aide said.
However, the document appears to leave the door open for a tough competition between Boeing and Airbus. The request "gives everybody a window and a possible victory to only two players," Richard Aboulafia, an aircraft analyst at Teal Group, told CongressDaily.
