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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 3387.PDF
DEFENCE LEASING PAUL LEWIS / HARTFORD Boeing seeks government support for air force 767 tanker lease bid Meanwhile, proposals at the end of October for the Joint STARS competition to re-engine the E-8C Boeing is lobbying the US Congress to support a proposal in the forth coming defence appropriations bill for the US Air Force to lease up to 100 new 767 tankers. This builds on a trial leasing programme now in the final bidding phase to re- engine its fleet of Boeing E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft. The $20 billion lease-buy plan calls for the USAF to spend $20 million a year per tanker over 10 years, at the end of which they would own the aircraft. The pro posal would fast-track finding a replacement for the air force's age ing KC-135 tankers, effectively cir cumventing a planned KC-X com petition, while providing an imme diate boost to Boeing's waning civil aircraft orderbook. Earlier proposed lease deals, such as re-engining the B-52 bomber, failed over the military's inability to commit future funds for a lease term and the liability faced by a lessor of equipment being re turned. "It's a problem and not an easy one to solve. In any ordinary budget year it would not be possi ble, but these are extraordinary times and there is a recognition that acquiring these aircraft makes a lot of sense," says an aide to Congressman Norman Dicks from Washington. Attention is now on the Joint STARS competition to replace the E-8's Pratt & Whitney JT3D-7 engines. Proposals are due on 24 October and centre on a nine-year lease and logistics support package across 17 aircraft with final selec tion due early next year. The Seven Q Seven consortium has teamed with P&W to bid the JT-8D-219, while General Electric and Boeing are proposing the CFM56-2, power ing the re-engined KC-135R. "This would be the first lease the air force has ever done," says Jason Chamberlain, P&W director airlift, surveillance and tanker engine pro grammes. "What's unique is there is no termination liability, which you couldn't do in the commercial world. The protection we have is that we'll give them only the engines they need and we have the advantage that if the air force wants to cancel the lease, the JT-8Ds would come off wing and we could utilise them for spares and recoup the cost." Also watching closely is NATO, which expects to release a request for proposals in May to re-engine the alliance's fleet of 17 Boeing E-3 Airborne Early Warning & Control Systems aircraft and three 707 trainers. "We're looking at all options including lease, loan or buy," says Col Reinhard Unruh, chief of plans, NATO AEW&C Programme Management Agency. MANUFACTURING USAF signals plan to buy 60 more C-17s The US Air Force plans to move ahead with the acquisition of an additional 60 Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transporters. At the same time Boeing has tabled an unsolicited new proposal for an even larger multi-year procurement of up to 100 aircraft at a lower unit cost as the spectre of a new Asian conflict again focuses US military attention on airlift. The USAF's Air Systems Command has posted a pre-solicitation for the sole-source acquisition of 60 C-17sfrom Boeing's Long Beach, California- based subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Government Aerospace. The air force plans to release a request for proposals later this month for a Lot 16 advance buy, which would secure continuity of production beyond delivery in late 2004 of the last of 120 C-17s currently on order. Boeing has warned for some time that its faces a gap in production unless the USAF commits to buy ing more C-17s. The company, in anticipation of a new order, has already invested its own funds to protect the supply of long lead items for the 121 st transport. Boeing recently revised an offer to build 60 additional C-17s at a rate of 15 per year for $ 152 million each in fiscal year 1999 dollars. In the last week, the company is understood to have forwarded an alternative proposal for 100 addi tional C-17s for around $142 million an aircraft, following US Congressional approval for a $40 bil lion supplemental budget in the wake of the 11 ' September terrorist attacks. "We have discussed other totals; 60 is not the only number. If you go above 60 you get a price brake," says Boeing. The C-17 would play a major part in any Central Asian conflict Congress previously gave the USAF approval to acquire 60 more C-17s if Boeing could cut the $232 million price by 25%. An order for 60 more would extend production at Long Beach to 2008 and bring the size of the C-17 fleet closer to the 210 originally planned. The aircraft would include replacements for 14 C-17s that will be con verted for Special Operations Forces with additional avionics sensors and flare dispensers. Boeing has proposed that the 60 new aircraft incorporate enhance ments, including an increase in maximum take off weight from the current 265,350kg (585,000lb) to 279,210kg, modified soft ware and hardware and a new fuel tank inerting sys tem. The aircraft would also include the new centre wing fuel tank, which became production standard from the recently delivered 70th aircraft. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 9 15 OCTOBER 2001 17
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