Tanker Facts

 

Current Status of Competition
  • The Department of Defense is scheduled to release its final request for proposal (RFP) in February, 2010
  • The draft RFP was released in Fall, 2009. Northrop Grumman and EADS have criticized the proposed specifications as favoring a smaller and less capable tanker much more similar to the Boeing 767-based tanker than the KC-45A.
  • The draft RFP proposes a scoring system that places the same importance on hundreds of aspects of the tanker. Therefore, the quality of on board bathrooms are as important as how much fuel can be carried and transferred
  • Some military analysts claim the draft RFP calls for a tanker no more technologically advanced than the 50-year-old tankers in use today.
  • In 2008, the KC-45A was selected by the U.S. Air Force after the most rigorous, fair, and transparent acquisition process in Department of Defense history.
  • The award was later cancelled after Boeing successfully appealed on several minor procedural matters – none dealing with the quality of the tankers.
  • Boeing’s protest was accompanied by a very vocal, political, and misleading public relations campaign led by congressional delegations from Washington state and Kansas (home to Boeing facilities).
The Northrop Grumman KC-45A is good for America's industrial base
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A tanker will support more than 50,000 NEW AMERICAN JOBS.
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A’s U.S. supplier base includes more than 230 companies in all 50 states.
  • Assembly and militarization of the Northrop Grumman KC-45A tanker will take place in Mobile, Ala., resulting in the creation of 2,000 jobs there.
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A tanker program will create a new aerospace manufacturing corridor in the southeastern United States thereby broadening and strengthening the U.S. aerospace industry and protecting the taxpayer be fostering competition.
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A tanker program DOES NOT TRANSFER ANY JOBS FROM THE UNITED STATES to France or any other foreign country.
The Northrop Grumman KC-45A is vitally important to the U.S. Air Force:
  • Air refueling tankers are a vital component to national security.
  • The existing fleet of Eisenhower-era KC-135s is older than any other force element currently in the U.S. Air Force inventory.
  • The U.S. Air Force established the KC-135 aerial refueling tanker replacement program as its number one acquisition priority. We simply cannot expect our airmen to forever defend our national interests with aging aircraft.
  • "From deploying and employing American combat power from all the services rapidly anywhere in the world, to providing disaster relief and humanitarian supplies around the globe, these tankers will provide the air bridge for the United States to defend our national interest and assist our friends anywhere on the planet," -- U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne.
  • "Recapitalization of our Air Force's jet tanker inventory is long overdue. Air refuelers are a single point of failure in modern military operations. Across the spectrum of what we do, we absolutely rely on the capabilities they give to us," -- U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Duncan McNabb.
Northrop Grumman KC-45A is ready now:
  • The first Northrop Grumman KC-45A tanker aircraft was built and flown in September 2007.
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A Aerial Refueling Boom System has completed rigorous testing and has completed in-flight fuel transfer.
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A is based upon the Royal Australian Air Force KC-30B Multi-role Tanker, which was delivered on time and has been built, flown and tested.
Foreign Content and Foreign Suppliers to U.S. Military Programs:
  • All modern jetliners are built from a global supplier base and both the KC-45A and Boeing’s 767-based tanker are no exceptions.
  • The Northrop Grumman KC-45A will include approximately 60 percent U.S. content, only slightly less than Boeing’s proposed tanker
  • There are numerous examples of transatlantic cooperation on vital U.S. military programs, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the VH-71 Presidential helicopter and the C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft program.
  • No sensitive military technology will be exported to Europe. For the KC-45A program, a commercial A330 jetliner will be assembled by American workers in EADS's facility in Mobile. The aircraft will then undergo military conversion in an adjacent Northrop Grumman facility, where all of the critical military technology will be added.