US Air Force to award $35 billion tanker contract

Nobody seems to see that the USAF should not depend on a FOREIGN built airplane for the job that the tankers are called to do. Simple as that.
The french in their first try used Northrop as a decoy to make believe that their proposal was comparable to Boeing's. That failed. No matter how it is disguised it is a FRENCH airplane. It could have GE engines, it could be built in the US but all the legal ownership of their parts is French and they would ultimately hold the right to supply parts when needed. Can you see that USAF having to beg a foreign country for support?

In case you are interested to learn: as I write this Boeing has only a few 767 being built for airline service mostly to fill the gap caused buy the awful delays in deliverying the 787. Again as I write this, Airbus continues to sell 330s for airline service like hot cakes. By definition airlines are a much efficient organizations for ordering airplanes than the Pentagon (sorry Mr. Gates), if the 330 would not be a good airplane, nobody have bought them, but the reality is quite the opposite.

It's about time. Our new tanker should be built by Boeing. There should never have been any doubt. The A-330 is NOT a better plane than Boeing can build, regardless of the claims of it's proponents. Les Lloyd, above, is correct, "Forget the politics, lets get on with building tankers!!"
EADS building our new Tanker???.........It just ain't fittin'.

Michael, during the last tanker go around, the USAF changed the evaluaiton critia after the RFP was released. This was done specifically to give more credit to the larger A330 and total against the government procurement policies and procedures. Therefore, the award was nullified, which was the right thing to do.

Forget the politics, lets get on with building tankers!!

I think that the current economic situation helped this decision. But, if the situation were better and the A330 really posed great threat to Boeing´s plane, they would offer a tanker based on the 777, not the 767.

There was a big stink the first time around with this. EADS originally was awarded the contract because they had the better plane, then the public got wind of it and threw a fit that a government contract went to a foreign supplier. Nonsense as that may be, there's an amusing punchline. EADS wanted to use GE as the engine supplier for their design. It still would have greatly benefited an American company had EADS won the bid.

Definitely, the economy and politics played a huge roll in the decision. The A330 structure is a far superior craft.

Had not it been for the current dismal economic situation that is affecting the U.S. now you can bet that the awarding would have gone to the EADS Airbus 330 as the previous bidding process found it a much better plane. The Boeing product is good but not equal.

I doubt if they have the ability to deliver on time and within budget.

Good for Boeing

Ever hear of a KC10?