USA — Boeing Statement on EADS’ Decision to Enter KC‑X Tanker Competition

ST. LOUIS, April 20, 2010 — The Euro­pean Aero­nau­tic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), par­ent com­pa­ny of Air­bus, today announced that it will re-enter the com­pe­ti­tion for the U.S. Air Force KC‑X Tanker con­tract through its sub­sidiary, EADS North Amer­i­ca. The Air Force has said that EADS’ announce­ment of intent will extend the pro­pos­al dead­line by 60 days, from May 10 to July 9. The Boe­ing Com­pa­ny respond­ed with the fol­low­ing state­ment:

“From the out­set, Boe­ing has been 100 per­cent focused on respond­ing to the needs of our Air Force cus­tomer and prepar­ing a com­pet­i­tive pro­pos­al. Only Boe­ing can pro­duce a tanker that will meet the Air Force’s 372 require­ments and promise deliv­ery of a com­bat-ready, safe and sur­viv­able tanker that is the most capa­ble for the warfight­er, the low­est cost for the tax­pay­er, and backed by Boeing’s proven U.S. work force. We are con­fi­dent in the supe­ri­or val­ue and capa­bil­i­ties of our New­Gen Tanker and intend to present a com­pelling case for it in our proposal. 

“While we are dis­ap­point­ed in the bid sub­mis­sion delay, we hope for a fair and trans­par­ent com­pe­ti­tion free of any addi­tion­al changes intend­ed to accom­mo­date a non‑U.S. prime contractor. 

“We also remain deeply con­cerned about the abil­i­ty of a heav­i­ly sub­si­dized Airbus/EADS to accept lev­els of finan­cial risk that a com­mer­cial com­pa­ny such as Boe­ing can­not. We regret that these con­cerns will not be addressed in the bid eval­u­a­tion, even when the U.S. gov­ern­ment has proven in a world court that those sub­si­dies are ille­gal and direct­ly dis­tort com­pe­ti­tion between Air­bus and Boeing.” 

The Boe­ing New­Gen Tanker will meet all 372 require­ments set forth by the Air Force in its search for a medi­um-size tanker to replace the KC-135 fleet. It will be a wide­body, mul­ti-mis­sion air­craft based on the proven Boe­ing 767 com­mer­cial air­craft, updat­ed with the lat­est and most advanced tech­nol­o­gy. And it will pro­vide more fuel and more car­go to more warfight­ers in combat. 

Boe­ing will build the New­Gen Tanker with a low-risk approach to man­u­fac­tur­ing that relies on exist­ing Boe­ing facil­i­ties in Wash­ing­ton state and Kansas as well as U.S. sup­pli­ers through­out the nation, with decades of expe­ri­ence deliv­er­ing depend­able mil­i­tary tanker and deriv­a­tive air­craft. Nation­wide, the New­Gen Tanker pro­gram will sup­port approx­i­mate­ly 50,000 total U.S. jobs with Boe­ing and more than 800 sup­pli­ers in more than 40 states. 

The Boe­ing New­Gen Tanker also will save Amer­i­can tax­pay­ers more than $10 bil­lion in fuel costs over its 40-year ser­vice life because it is 24 per­cent more fuel-effi­cient than the Air­bus A330. It will cost 15 to 20 per­cent less to main­tain, sav­ing hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars over its ser­vice life. 

More infor­ma­tion on Boeing’s New­Gen Tanker, includ­ing video clips and an inter­ac­tive tour of the air­craft, is avail­able at www.UnitedStatesTanker.com.

Press release
Boe­ing
Con­tact:
William Barks­dale
Boe­ing Tanker Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Mobile: 314–707-3294
Office: 314–232-0860
william.a.barksdale@boeing.com

Dan Beck
Boe­ing Defense, Space & Secu­ri­ty
Mobile: 562–243-7082
Office: 703–414-6447
daniel.c.beck@boeing.com