Lockheed Martin abandons the tender for US Air Force tankers and leaves Boeing in pole position
Lockheed Martin has withdrawn from the competition for the US Air Force's new tanker aircraft, leaving its partner Airbus alone. This leaves Boeing's KC-46 in pole position
Lockheed Martin abandons its European partner Airbus in the race to build the US Air Force's new tankers.
America's top military contractor unveiled the Lmxt air-to-air refueling tanker in September 2021, which would go up against Boeing's incumbent KC-46 in the US Air Force's competition for the KC-135 replacement program.
To build the next United States air refueler, the Bethesda defense giant had teamed up with the European Airbus . The Lmxt aircraft was planned on the design of the Airbus 330, the long-range wide-body twin-jet used for passenger transport, in the MRTT (Multi Role Tanker Transport) version.
But yesterday Lockheed Martin announced it was withdrawing from the competition. For its part, the European aerospace company will continue the race without Lockheed, Airbus said Monday evening.
According to Reuters , Lockheed's withdrawal gives a boost to rival Boeing, greatly increasing the chances that it will win the program despite years of costly mistakes with the KC-46 tanker fleet.
All the details.
THE US AIR FORCE RACE
The KC-Y Bridge tanker program launched in 2022 by the Pentagon planned to purchase 140 to 160 aircraft to continue the replacement of its aging KC-135 fleet.
The Air Force has established a three-phase process for replacing the KC-135, with Boeing's current acquisition of 179 KC-46s representing its first phase.
But this year the Air Force rearranged its acquisition plans for the second and third phases of the program. Last March, it announced it would cut its planned second-phase tanker purchase in half, to about 75, to allocate more funds to the NGAS program (formerly the KC-Z program). NGAS represents the final tranche of the current tanker replacement program. It is expected to be announced and completed in the 2030s.
Based on current prices, the total order could amount to around $12 billion, but is likely to be higher, Reuters reports.
LOCKHEED MARTIN'S RETREAT
As Defense News highlights, the Air Force's surprise cut in tanker numbers was a major blow to Lockheed Martin and Airbus' LMXT program. But Lockheed continued to move forward, and in June the company announced that it had chosen a General Electric Aerospace engine for the LMXT.
Yet, yesterday the defense giant announced its withdrawal from the race.
“We are transitioning the LMXT team and Lockheed Martin resources to new opportunities and priority programs within Lockheed Martin, including the development of aerial refueling solutions in support of the United States' Next-Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS) initiative. American Air Force. We remain committed to the accelerated delivery of advanced capabilities that strengthen the US Air Force's aerial refueling missions,” the company said yesterday.
THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE EUROPEAN AIRBUS
For its part, Airbus has made it known that it will continue with the tender, announcing that it will respond to the USAF's Request for Information (RFI).
A victory for the European aerospace group would give Airbus its first aircraft contract with the US Air Force after trying to penetrate the US defense market for two decades, comments Reuters .
IN POLE BOEING?
Finally, according to experts, Lockheed's decision to abandon the tender could increase rival Boeing's chances of success.
In 2011, Boeing won the first three-phase contract to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of tanker aircraft, securing a contract for 179 KC-46s, based on the 767 platform.
The KC-46, however, has been plagued by flaws, including problems with an onboard video system and a refueling boom that fails to connect the tanker to the refueling-seeking aircraft. These errors cost Boeing $7 billion in losses. In recent years, technical problems have accumulated and required expensive solutions.
So the result of the race is by no means a given.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/lockheed-martin-abbandona-la-gara-per-i-tanker-dellaeronautica-usa-e-lascia-in-pole-boeing/ on Tue, 24 Oct 2023 13:14:23 +0000.