So,

1. Get your hands burned by colluding over a military contract.
2. Lose the revised competition because your submission isn't good enough.
3. Do a Violet-Elizabeth over the results of the competition.
4. Persuade the politicos that the result should be put on hold.

..and now 5. Having worked out that the 767 still isn't good enough, squeal for another delay to an already delayed programme, annoying your potential customer in the process.

Riiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhhtttttttt............... :rolleyes:

Waiting game ?
 

Seems as though Boeing's "betting" on the Senator from Illinois winning the election and then relying on standard Chicago politics to kick in.
jon Ostrower on Flightblogger had some interesting sketches of 767 variants and their tail-scrape angles (without boom), which could make any 767 version marginal for the job anyway.
They'll be shouting for even more toys to throw out of the pram ... And if recent polls showing Sen. McCain going ahead are right, they could still be deep in the mire ...
(No Euro-Schadenfreude on my part, of course ...).
:8

Waiting Game
 

Jig Peter wrote:

"Seems as though Boeing's "betting" on the Senator from Illinois winning the election and then relying on standard Chicago politics to kick in."

Obviously Boeing is trying to push this off to the new administration, yes- they are counting on the "Senator from Illinois" as Jig Peter
stated in his post.

Enough-is-enough from Boeing, hopefully DOD will not bow to pressure tactics from Boeing and stick to their December deadline!

Yes, I work for Northrop Grumman and I'm tired of this protest nonsense as well as the BAMS UAV protest which the GAO denied Lockheed-Martin. Who ever heard of two wins and then two successive protests.

Lee N.:ok:

Misquote
 

"a large tanker can do everything that a smaller one can’t" is not what I said FOG.

I said "a large tanker can do what a medium tanker can, not the other way round".

ACN/PCN is a limiting factor for the airbus, but not critically because it has range and endurance. The 767 still requires a long runway despite better ACN.

In any case, if the airfield doesnt have the gas storage required to support tanking ops, whats the advantage in being there?

Yes, one that must be called an Airbus A-330

Tanker - Boeing vs Airbus
 

KC-767 vs KC-45. I don't think so! This is Boeing vs Airbus or "USA" vs "Not USA". It's protectionism at its very best . . and why not? You can't seriously expect Boeing to lie down and let a "Foreigner" take over, without a fight - It's just not the American way

Maybe the Europeans should follow suit and stop buying F15s, 16s, 18s, 35s, C130s, C17s et al, and go with Typhoon, Gripen or Rafale and A400. Fat chance!

The qualities of either platform is almost incidental. Even the top fly-boys of the USAF have said they don't actually mind which one they get, so long as they get one of them . . . soon!

As a footnote, Boeing could delay things even more by waiting till the very end of the response period before declaring a no-bid . . . Over to Congress. Then its "Seconds out, Round 3".

;)

at this stage can't see any decision made until the election is over, given one candidate basically backing each side.

You want that when?
 

Delivery of Italy's Tankers Slips to '09

Delivery of Italy's Tankers Slips to '09 - Defense News

Pentagon cancels tanker competition
 

"The Pentagon has cancelled a $35 billion competition for a new air refueling tanker, leaving the politically charged decision to a new administration, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday."

Gates Confirms Pentagon Cancels Tanker Competition

Succinct comment
 

See Bill Sweetman's comments on this Almighty Eff-up on www.Avweek.com, than which it would be very hard to do better without profanity.
Thanks, Bill !
:ugh::ugh:

Are the export of US ears to Italy compliant with their National Security Interests?

US DoD cancels troubled KC-X tanker contest
 

Full story here: US DoD cancels troubled KC-X tanker contest :}

Jig Peter - fixed link:

Ares Homepage

Well done Boeing,

Your repeated obstruction in letting the customer select their chosen product does not hold you in a good light.

Antics like these make my 3 year old son look quite mature by comparison.

Then again all's fair in war and business.....right?

Boeing openly stated they didn't understand the AF wanted a larger aircraft today, WTF over? If you propose the "wrong size aircraft" then according to FAR's you lose, period. I believe that is why Boeing has been making the "We will not bid", "There is not enough time to bid" noises. It takes a long time to rewrite a response with a different ac. But the whole sad part again, is that the the program is delayed for god knows how long, while self righteous, know nothing politicians interfere again, not to mention the careers of the blue suiters whose bosses did not stand up for them and say "Look morons, Boeing got it wrong!" PC gone mad.

And the winner is..........

OMEGA

Hurrah, well done Ulick.

:ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

Boeing should first concentrate a little bit more in putting the 787 Ghostliner into the air....

They cannot even allocate the required resources to that (and the strike will not help) so how can you figure they could bring a new tanker design in such a few months ?

Anyway, the USAF is losing capacity in the process, and that's all that matters for many ...

It'll be interesting to see if Airbus still proposes to link its RFP with a plan to shift A330 production to US soil.

KC-X Cancellation
 

Once again our "friends" at Boeing demonstrated their perfection in controlling Capitol Hill and the DOD to obtain their delaying tactics! How many US Senators and Congresspersons are in Boeing's pocket?

Lee N.:mad:

A330 tanker still the winner
 

A new competition will give EADS more time to develop an off the shelf product for the USAF. Boeing are still in a state of disarray, plagued by failure and strikes, and don't have a competitive product in the hangar. Boeing will be starting from scratch while EADS will be delivering real tankers next year. I can hear those 50 year old KC-135 airframes groaning....let's hope they can hold up?