GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Congress is to ask the US Department of Defence to study the lease of just 25 Boeing 767 tankers as the original 100-aircraft deal slides deeper into controversy. The last of four Congressional committees required to approve the deal delayed a vote as the DoD launched an investigation into whether a former US Air Force official acted improperly in providing information to Boeing about EADS's rival offer of Airbus A330 tankers.
Meeting after three other Congressional committees had already endorsed the $16.6 billion lease deal, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) proposed that the USAF lease 25 KC-767As to meet its immediate tanker needs and buy the remaining 75 through a standard multi-year procurement. The US Air Force says this would increase the lease price of the 25 aircraft by almost 25%.
The SASC plans to ask the DoD to conduct an analysis of alternatives (AOA) and a study of corrosion in the Boeing KC-135 tanker fleet. The committee also wants a review of an independent study by the Institute of Defense Analysis that estimated the lease price at $120.7 million per aircraft rather than the $131 million agreed by Boeing and USAF.
Senator John McCain, leading opposition to the lease, says he would consider a 25-aircraft deal provided the DoD first conduct an AoA and the other studies.
The air force's rationale for pursuing the lease option is that the aircraft would be available five years earlier, even though it would cost $150 million-$1.9 billion more than purchasing them. Under the lease deal 60 aircraft would be delivered by FY2009, and all 100 by FY2011.
On the eve of the SASC vote, McCain released documents suggesting that senior USAF acquisition official Darleen Druyun, now a Boeing executive, told the company in April last year that Airbus's tanker offer was $5-17 million cheaper per aircraft. The DoD's inspector general is investigating the allegation. Boeing does not believe it received proprietary information.
As the tanker controversy deepened, Boeing revealed it was setting up an independent team to reassess the business cases behind its top 10 to 15 programmes. The move is an effort to identify problems earlier and to avoid a repeat of July's $1.1 billion write-off against the company's commercial space businesses, $835 million of it on the Delta IV launch vehicle.
The list of projects to be scrutinised is still being drawn up, but will include the Delta IV and the satellite business, as well as the 767 tanker, 7E7 airliner and the US Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme. FCS and the troubled Future Imagery Architecture programme to provide the US National Reconnaissance Office with next-generation spy satellites were already being watched closely by Boeing headquarters.
The independent review is intended to determine whether the businesses cases behind the programmes are robust and the risk management practices of Boeing's business units are adequate. Boeing Commercial Airplanes plans to present the business case for development of the 7E7 by year-end.
Source: Flight International