Tanker part 3

Boeing May Enter
A Modified 777
In Tanker Battle
By ANDY PASZTOR and J. LYNN LUNSFORD
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 5, 2005
With a military competition for new aerial refueling tankers on the
horizon, it is increasingly likely that the Defense Department and
congressional leaders will want Boeing Co.'s entry to be a modified
version of its 777 aircraft, rather than the 767 tanker the company has
already developed.
A competition to modernize the U.S. military service's aging tanker
fleet is expected to begin next year, and Boeing's plane would likely be
pitted against an offering from European archrival Airbus. Final
decisions on modernizing the military's aging air tanker fleet could
stretch into 2007, and it isn't clear where the money to buy dozens of
new planes will come from.
But after years of focusing on the cost and attributes of the 767 as a
flying gas station for the military, attention inside the Pentagon and
on Capitol Hill has shifted to the more expensive but more capable 777.
Responding to overall budget pressures as well as advice by outside
experts, military leaders are leaning toward tanker aircraft that would
be able to ferry cargo, troops or conduct certain types of airborne
surveillance.
Both the 767 and 777 have two engines, but the 777 is about a third
larger and poses extra operating complexities on cramped airfields. In
the past, the Air Force argued its pressing aerial-refueling needs made
it impractical to consider tankers for other uses. The size and timing
of tanker contracts will depend on the conclusions of Pentagon studies
of requirements for cargo and tanker aircraft.
If plans for a multimission tanker end up as part of Defense Department
budgets, Boeing eventually stands to benefit because a 777 airliner
costs an average of about $80 million more than a 767 model. But a
switch would almost certainly spell the end for the Chicago aerospace
giant's 767 assembly line, which has been kept open in recent months by
a handful of final orders from airlines that fly the plane on
international routes. Boeing is developing a new plane, the 787
"Dreamliner," to replace the 767 in commercial service. That plane is
expected to enter service in mid-2008.
U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert, a California Republican who is chairman of a
subcommittee on aeronautics and serves on the Armed Services Committee,
is among those pushing the 777. The military and Congress "probably will
go to a new tanker design" based on the 777, because "it gives us a lot
more flexibility," Rep. Calvert said in an interview. "I don't think we
want to buy a plane" like the 767, he added, "because it's on the way
out" of production.
U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, making his first public
statements about tanker-acquisition plans a few days ago, likewise
stressed the importance of flexibility beyond aerial refueling.
A Boeing spokesman said the manufacturer has maintained all along that
it will be ready to build any type of tanker specified by the Air Force.
Write to Andy Pasztor at and J. Lynn Lunsford at