TANKER USAF - Appels d'offres

19 juillet (Reuers) -
Boeing a annoncé vendredi avoir officiellement répondu à l'appel d'offres pour les avions-ravitailleurs de l'armée de l'air américaine.
L'appareil proposé par Boeing vise à remplacer 179 KC-135 de l'armée de l'air américaine datant de l'époque Eisenhower.
L'avionneur américain dit avoir la capacité de produire au rythme de production qui sera demandé. L'européen EADS a remis sa proposiiton jeudi.
(Bureau de Bangalore, Danielle Rouquié pour le service français)

USAF receives three proposals for KC-X, but Antonov team admits concerns
The US Air Force has started the countdown to the KC-X contract award after having received three bids to build 179 tankers, including a last-minute offer from a California company selling Antonov aircraft.
The contest is likely to remain a face-off between the Boeing KC-767NewGen Tanker and the EADS North America KC-45, even though Antonov-bidder US Aerospace touted a possibly lower $29.5 billion price tag for its proposal.
The competition has been valued between $35 billion to $40 billion with Boeing and EADS in the race.
US Aerospace, which signed a security cooperation pact with Ukraine-based Antonov eight days ago, acknowledged it faces long-odds in a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The air force's evaluation team may decide that Antonov is an "unacceptable" subcontractor for a KC-X bid, US Aerospace. Other possible shortcomings in its bid include the possible lack of qualified teaming partners, an inability to handle classified information and "required teaming agreements have not been entered into", the company says in the regulatory filing.
USAF officials are expected to award the contract on in mid-November.
The competition has been the focus of a bitter political feud ever since EADS started pursuing the contract in 2002.
A four-year partnership with Northrop Grumman yielded a contract victory for the EADS team in February 2008, but the award was overturned on technical grounds by the Government Accountability Office.
In March, Northrop withdrew from the EADS team over concerns that the new terms of the competition tilt the evaluation in favour of Boeing's smaller aircraft. After initially agreeing with its former partner, EADS decided it should submit a bid anyway.

Boeing readying plant for Air Force tanker production

While Boeing won't even submit its Air Force aerial refueling [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bid until Friday and won't find out if it won the contract until at least November, the company already is preparing to be ready to build the planes.
"In February 2011 we will be 100 percent in this bay," Elizabeth Lund, vice president and general manager of the 767 program, said in showing off the line's planned new home during a tour of Boeing's Everett wide-body plant last month. "We are setting it up to build either commercial or tanker (767s) completely interchangeably and seamlessly."
Boeing will use the 767's existing site for a "surge" line to produce extra 787 Dreamliners. The 767 will move from a "slant" line with big tooling to a lean, nose-to-tail line similar to that of the 777.
The new line will take up about 44 percent less space, improve quality and will allow the company to churn out the planes with a cost savings that is "significant," Lund said. "And we will leverage it for the tanker (bid)."
While the 787 surge line necessitates the move, Boeing also wants to have the new line ready to start work if and when it wins the tanker competition and signs a contract, Lund said. "Our production system will be up and running and producing."
Boeing will incrementally build up the new site to full operation next February. The tanker request calls for building 15 planes a year.
Reacting to EADS North America executives' repeated [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] that they have an existing, flying tanker very close to what they will offer to the Air Force, while Boeing doesn't, Lund said: "Their tanker does not even come close to meeting all 372 requirements. It's not even close. ... They will have to do significant redesign. So will we."
As for Boeing's redesign, she said: "We have a proven 767. We've done three, four derivatives over time."
The company is still working out details of how to most-efficiently build planes in Everett and get them to Wichita, Kan., to be finished as military tankers, Lund said. "We're not going to build an airplane, send it to Wichita, tear it up and rebuild it."
One notable aspect of the line is that the 767s will exit the back of the plant, which no aircraft do now. That means cutting new doors and, to make sure there's enough room to get around to the flight line, shaving a corner off of the building, Lund said.
Asked if Boeing would offer upgrades from its NewGen tanker to potential 767 commercial customers, Lund said: "That's probably a next step when we win" the tanker competition.
"Our strategy has been and continues to be long-term that the (7)87 will be our middle of the market airplane," she said. "What the 67 can provide really is nearer-term lift."
As for what will happen to the old site once the 787 surge line closes down, "that's the fun product development question of the future," Lund said. "We have a lot of options."

U.S. Aerospace, Antonov file $29.55-billion tanker bid

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Friday bid $29.55 billion -- $150 million per plane -- to build new aerial refueling [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] for the U.S. Air Force, according to a company announcement.
"We are proud to be participating in the largest military contract bid in history," company director Michael Goldberg said in a news release. "We are pleased to be executing on our aerospace business plan focusing on expanding our Company's sales and manufacturing capabilities."
Ukraine's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] would build the aircraft components, which would go to U.S. Aerospace for final assembly. The companies [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] several possible planes that it might bid but did not elaborate on the proposal Friday.
The Pentagon has estimated the value of the contract at $35 billion and expects to announce a winner in November. Analysts do not expect the U.S. Aerospace bid to be competitive against front-runners Boeing and EADS

EADS KC-X Bid In, Tanker Rhetoric Heats Up

EADS North America is confident its Airbus A330-200-based KC-X proposal will win the long-running U.S. Air Force competition, but Ralph Crosby, chairman of the company’s board, says some statements about the highly charged duel from supporters of its competitor, Boeing, amount to a “bunch of crap.”
The company is submitting an 8,819-page, 17-volume proposal to replace 179 KC-135 tankers; bids are due July 9. EADS’s design is based largely on the configuration in development for the Royal Australian Air Force. Boeing is proposing a 767-based option, but it is deviating from the design made for Japan and Italy, and no known prototype exists.
The Air Force is expected to announce a winner of the procurement, worth about $35 billion, on Nov. 12. Crosby and other EADS executives announced their proposal submission during a July 8 roundtable with reporters.
Leading up to the proposal submissions, both companies have been locked in a public volley of discourse. Boeing supporters argue that a World Trade Organization (WTO) finding that Airbus received illegal subsidies to develop its commercial aircraft should be taken into consideration in the source selection. Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) is among a group of lawmakers proposing legislation that would call for the Pentagon to penalize the EADS offering because of the subsidies. He says that a $5 million per airplane penalty should be added to the EADS proposal price.
Pentagon officials say WTO rules prevent them from inflicting penalties, and any suggestion to the contrary is “patently inaccurate,” according to Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus Americas. “I’d like to think of another word for B.S.” He adds that the $5 billion figure cited by Tiahrt and other lawmakers for launch aid is a “mythical number.”
The WTO announced its dispute resolution panel will delay until September issuing its findings on the case of the European Union against the United States that alleges Boeing received unfair subsidies from Washington. McArtor said the delay decision “stinks like last week’s fish,” and questioned whether the U.S. Trade Representative pressured the WTO for the shift to allow Boeing’s debut of the 787 at this month’s Farnborough Air Show to occur unfettered by news of the case.
EADS is opening up a new KC-X program management operation in Mobile, Ala., on Monday, July 12, to handle discussions with the Air Force following proposal submission, says Sean O’Keefe, chief executive officer for EADS North America. “We intend to proceed starting now as if we are going to win,” he says. Mobile was selected as the stateside site for A330-200 tanker and freighter final assembly when the company won the last KC-X competition in 2008, that time under the leadership of then prime contractor Northrop Grumman. That win was nullified after a Boeing protest turned up procurement missteps by the U.S. Air Force, and Northrop Grumman walked away as prime for the bid this spring. EADS announced in April it would proceed with its own prime contractor proposal.
O’Keefe says the first three of four development aircraft for the KC-X program would be built in Toulouse, France, with military modifications done in Spain at an Airbus Military facility. The fourth development aircraft would roll off the A330 line in Toulouse but be modified with mission systems in Mobile. Company officials declined to say when the first aircraft fully assembled and modified in America would be delivered from the Mobile line.
Crosby says that the establishment of the facility in Mobile would be an “economic magnet” for local economies struggling after the effects of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill wiped out tourism dollars for the summer season.
This, however, is not a factor in the Air Force’s source selection process. Each bidder must meet 372 mandatory requirements to qualify, and the winner will be chosen largely on low price. Price will be a tough point for the team because the Airbus model is bigger and heavier than its Boeing rival. “I feel good about the intersection of value and price,” Crosby says.
California-based U.S. Aerospace has filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that indicate it will lead as prime contractor bids offering three Antonov models for the competition. This, however, is being viewed by KC-X competitors with skepticism (Aerospace DAILY, July 6).
The Pentagon says it is sticking to its 2 p.m. July 9 deadline for competitors to submit their KC-X proposals, despite the potential U.S. Aerospace bid. “The Department has received a request for information from U.S. Aerospace concerning the Air Force KC-X tanker replacement program RFP,” Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin says. “We have consistently supported competition for the tanker program. The Department is committed to conducting a fair, open and transparent acquisition process. We also believe that any company that is interested and qualified to participate in this important program should do so.”
Boeing plans to turn in its offer July 9.

FRANCFORT (Dow Jones)--European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. va proposer des prix inférieurs à ceux précédemment établis en vue de remporter le contrat de fourniture d'avions ravitailleurs à l'armée de l'air américaine, rapporte lundi le Financial Times Deutschland, citant des sources du secteur.

La division Airbus d'[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] va fixer un prix pour chaque modèle et ces prix seront inférieurs à ceux proposés lors des offres de 2008 et 2009, indique l'article.

Le ravitailleur basé sur l'Airbus A330-200 pourrait ainsi être mis en vente pour 10% de moins que les 184 millions de dollars proposés lors de la dernière offre, rapporte le quotidien allemand.

Le concurrent d'Airbus, Boeing Co. (BA), devra calculer un prix fixe pour une version modernisée de son 767, qui n'a pas encore volé, un risque supplémentaire pour Boeing, puisque EADS peut compter sur des modèles existants qui ont déjà été employés dans plus de 1.000 opérations de ravitaillement.

EADS n'était pas immédiatement disponible pour commenter lundi.

Dow Jones Newswires

Airbus union endorses buy-American line on tanker
French Airbus union has declined to support EADS North America's bid for the U.S. Air Force's aerial refueling [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] contract, saying it understands calls to buy the tanker from U.S. rival Boeing, Leeham News and Comment [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Wednesday.
"We want the French industry to supply all equipment to the French military. We understand why American unions believe that U.S. industry should supply the equipment to the U.S. military," Federation des Travailleurs de la Metallurgie representatives Jean-Jaques Desvignes and Christian Pilichowski told Leeham during a visit to Seattle.
But Airbus spokesman Rainer Ohler dismissed the union as "a small, minority union with traditional ties to the French Communist Party."
EADS North America would assemble its tanker at a new plant in Mobile, Ala. The site also would churn out commercial freighters, which may be one reason why an Airbus union doesn't support the bid.

Tanks for Nothing
How military needs take second place to pork-barrel politics.

THE FAT LADY NEVER SINGS in Washington. No decision is ever final; no word is a bond; no contract binds a congressman; no bill or resolution has force beyond the next election. That's the first principle of our government, and the second is similar: Every dollar of federal spending is pork first. With these principles in mind, we can discuss a long-running embarrassment in military procurement.
The Air Force needs new tanker aircraft. The vast majority of jets that the service uses for mid-air refueling are the military equivalents of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] 707s, acquired in the 1950s and 1960s. A smaller number are the military equivalents of DC-10s, acquired in the 1970s.
U.S. airlines long ago retired their 707s and DC-10s, but the Air Force has kept the tanker fleet flying as best it can, bolting new engines on old planes while it tried to acquire new ones.
The first chance came in 2001, when Boeing was suffering through a recession and laying off tens of thousands of workers. In Congress, friends of Boeing and friends of the Air Force struck a deal to heat up slumping production of the Boeing 767. They would let the Pentagon order 100 new planes to be modified as tankers, and thousands of constituents would go back to work.
A tanker contract was signed in 2003, but everyone went too fast and loose. To get started without budgeting all the money, the Bush administration tried to do a leasing deal. That works in industry but went against traditional government procurement rules. Worse, one of the civilians at the Pentagon trying to speed the process was also greasing a Boeing job for herself. Ethics and budget procedure together killed the deal in 2004.
Civilian orders for the 767 were still slow, and the Air Force still wanted new tankers. But the new procurement would have to be fair, open and transparent, so much so that European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. was encouraged to make it a real competition. [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]offered to modify one of its transport jets, the Airbus 330.
EADS acquired protective American coloration in the form of a partnership with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. Knowing that Congress would never approve importing whole planes, EADS and Northrop Grumman promised to do much of the work at a plant in Alabama.
After a few years of fine-tuning the bids and taking calls from congressmen, the Pentagon swallowed hard and picked Northrop Grumman and their partners at EADS to build 179 tankers. The 2008 decision was a brave and ultimately futile gesture.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, where the 767 is assembled, spoke for many other members of Congress with Boeing facilities in their states: "We are outraged that this decision taps European Airbus and its foreign workers to provide a tanker to our American military. This is a blow to the American aerospace industry, American workers and America's men and women in uniform."
An Air Force general in charge of air tankers commented that the winning plane could carry "more passengers, more cargo, more medical patients, could off-load more fuel and had more flexibility, more dependability and more availability."
But the Airbus did not carry more clout.
Boeing protested the bidding process and was upheld by a Congressional agency, the Government Accountability Office.
The Bush administration said it wanted to have a new competition and award the contract by the end of 2008. No surprise, that didn't happen..
Both competitors and their allies in Congress accused the Pentagon of bias; both threatened not to bid in the new contest. Northrop eventually did pull out, but EADS returned to the fray. EADS and Boeing both submitted bids this month and the Pentagon says it will decide by the end of the year.
If all goes well from here, the first Air Force tanker will be delivered 10 years late. On a Washington calendar, that would count as a victory, if it happens. That's your government, inaction.

USA/ravitailleurs: Airbus ne bradera pas

Le constructeur aéronautique européen Airbus n'a pas l'intention de brader le prix de ses ravitailleurs pour obtenir le méga contrat avec l'armée américaine face à l'américain Boeing, a affirmé le président exécutif de la maison mère EADS.

"Que les choses soient claires, nous voulons gagner de l'argent. Nous préférons perdre (ce contrat) que ne pas gagner d'argent", a déclaré Louis Gallois, lors d'une rencontre avec la presse à Londres avant l'ouverture lundi du salon aéronautique de Farnborough (au sud de la capitale).

"Boeing a déclaré avoir baissé ses prix. Je ne sais pas, je n'ai pas accès aux prix pratiqués par Boeing et je n'ai pas de commentaire à faire là dessus. Nous avons fixé un prix avec un objectif de rentabilité. Je pense que nous sommes compétitifs", a-t-il ajouté.

Le Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) a affirmé dans son édition de lundi qu'Airbus aurait baissé d'au moins 10% le prix unitaire de ses ravitailleurs par rapport à son offre de 2008.

Airbus a remis le 8 juillet son offre d'un avion derivé de l'A330 après avoir obtenu un délai de deux mois à la suite du retrait de son ancien partenaire Northrop Grumman.
C'est la troisième fois en moins de dix ans que les deux constructeurs s'affrontent pour décrocher ce qu'Airbus qualifie de "marché du siècle", évalué jusqu'à 40 milliards de dollars (30,9 milliards d'euros).

En 2003, le contrat avait été attribué à Boeing, avant la révélation d'un grave conflit d'intérêt qui avait contraint le Pentagone à relancer la procédure. En 2008, Airbus l'avait emporté mais la Cour des comptes américaine avait une nouvelle fois tout annulé.

Cette fois, les militaires ont jusqu'à la mi-octobre pour étudier les offres dans les moindres détails. Leur décision, susceptible d'un nouvel appel à la Cour des Comptes, est attendue à la mi-novembre.

Louis Gallois a estimé que le Pentagone rendrait une décision "juste".

"une question de prix"

La course pour l'obtention du contrat de renouvellement de la flotte d'avions ravitailleurs de l'armée de l'Air américaine, qui oppose Boeing Co. (BA) et Airbus, se résume à une guerre de prix, a déclaré mardi le président-directeur général de Boeing.
"C'est devenu une guerre de prix entre deux sociétés qui disposent d'appareils performants", a déclaré Jim McNerney, lors d'une entrevue accordée au Wall Street Journal au Salon aéronautique de Farnborough.
Les deux géants aéronautiques sont en concurrence pour l'obtention d'un contrat de 35 milliards de dollars portant sur la construction d'une flotte de 179 ravitailleurs pour l'U.S Air Force, en remplacement de la flotte actuelle composée d'avions Boeing dont certains sont en service depuis la fin de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale.
Samedi, Louis Gallois, le patron de European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. (EADSY, EAD.FR), maison mère d'Airbus, a déclaré que si [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] entendait se battre pour obtenir le contrat, son conseil d'administration n'accepterait pas de se lancer dans une entreprise déficitaire.
J.McNerney et d'autres responsables de Boeing ont estimé qu'il était possible qu'Airbus propose un prix plus bas que Boeing.
"Nous comptons nous engager vigoureusement dans la bataille, mais il y a une limite au-delà de laquelle je ne pourrai aller en raison de ma responsabilité vis-à-vis de mes actionnaires", a pour sa part déclaré J.McNerney mardi.
Boeing a proposé une version modifiée de son long courrier B767 tandis que Airbus a présenté un appareil légèrement plus grand, basé sur l'A330.
Les deux groupes ont soumis leur offre au Pentagone au début du mois. Les autorités américaines devraient annoncer leur choix le 12 novembre.

Boeing hints at KC-767 NewGen Tanker design

In a huddle with reporters after a press briefing, a Boeing executive offered the most tangible hint to date that the KC-767 NewGen Tanker blends major structural components from different aircraft models.
Charles Johnson, Boeing vice president of air force mobility, told reporters during the briefing that it will not be "easy" for EADS North America to adapt the KC-45 with cockpit armour and defensive systems.
Asked afterward if Boeing could reassure the public that the KC-767 NewGen Tanker would require less challenging design changes, Johnson said he could.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

reporter noted that Boeing's KC-767 design featured a wing and fuselage from different aircraft models, which would seem to pose a greater redesign challenge than integrating defensive systems and cockpit armour.
Johnson replied that "it's pretty straightforward actually" to install a wing from a different model on to the 767-200 fuselage.
Johnson cited the example of the Boeing P-8A programme, which matches the wing of the 737-900ER to the fuselage of the -800 and is built in-line rather than modified afterward.
That was the closest Boeing has come to revealing details of the structural design of the KC-767 NewGen Tanker. In the last round of the KC-X competition, Boeing faced criticism for blending elements of three different 767 models into the so-called "frankentanker".
A day earlier, Boeing executives at a media roundtable pointedly declined to link the experience on the P-8A programme to the NewGen Tanker design, saying that doing so would be giving away competitive information.
Instead, Dennis Muilenburg, offered only one other key detail about the NewGen Tanker.
In response to questions, Muilenburg revealed the KC-767 NewGen Tanker includes a boom based on the hardware of the KC-10 and upgraded with fly-by-wire controls developed for the KC-767s purchased by Italy and Japan.
Boeing had previously indicated the system includes fly-by-wire, but had not disclosed the system for KC-X came from the Italian and Japanese tankers.
It seems a small detail, but it's one of the few specific disclosures that Boeing has allowed to be released in the intense competition for a contract award to build up to 179 tankers.

Boeing goes on new KC-X offensive

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] launched a new rhetorical offensive in the KC-X contract battle at Farnborough, reviving old criticisms about its rival's approach to hard envelope protection and non-feedback sidesticks.
Charles Johnson, Boeing vice-president of mobility, charged that the bedrocks of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s cockpit philosophy would place military pilots in danger.
In response, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] North America, which has proposed an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] modified into the KC-45 tanker, shot back that the KC-767 NewGen Tanker poses the greater risk to pilot safety.
"Boeing is clearly raising these red-herring issues in an attempt to distract from its lack of a tanker and from the considerable risk it is offering the [US] Air Force by proposing a tanker that only exists on paper," EADS NA says.
The new debate aggravated the rhetoric on both sides of the debate, which had previously been mostly characterised by bickering over fuel capacity and commercial aircraft subsidies.
In marketing videos, Boeing had boasted about how the KC-767 is designed to give pilots full control to manoeuvre the aircraft in any situation, such as dodging a missile attack.
But company officials had so far refrained from directly criticising the Airbus hard envelope protection system, which is designed to limit the pilot's ability to manoeuvre the aircraft beyond preset limits.
The KC-767, by contrast, gives the pilot "complete, full access to the aircraft envelope", Johnson says, adding: "The pilot can always override" limits set by the flight controls.
"You want to be able to make [certain manoeuvres] and not always be limited," Johnson says.
EADS NA says that pilots in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] multi-role tanker transport - on which the KC-45 is based - are not limited to making any manoeuvre that they would need in combat.
Johnson also criticises the Airbus use of sidesticks that provide no feedback response to pilots. Boeing yokes are back-driven, allowing the pilot to feel a response from the flight controls even in a fly-by-wire aircraft.
"Boeing's condemnations of fly-by-wire technology are puzzling, given its extensive use of the same technology in many of its own military aircraft, and the air force's use of sidestick in some of its most successful aircraft," EADS NA says.

GAO grants expedited review of Air Force tanker protest

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has agreed to an expedited review of U.S. Aerospace's protest of its exclusion from the Air Force aerial refueling [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] contest because its bid was late, Aviation Week [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Wednesday.
This means the GAO will rule on the protest in 65 days rather than the standard 100, putting the decision at Oct. 6, according to the report, which said the Air Force requested the expedited review

Jeannot a écrit:Le GAO US (Government Accountability Office) donne son accord pour statuer sur la reclamation de U.S. Aerospace dans les 65 jours.

GAO grants expedited review of Air Force tanker protest

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has agreed to an expedited review of U.S. Aerospace's protest of its exclusion from the Air Force aerial refueling [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] contest because its bid was late, Aviation Week [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Wednesday.
This means the GAO will rule on the protest in 65 days rather than the standard 100, putting the decision at Oct. 6, according to the report, which said the Air Force requested the expedited review

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]

Air Force tanker bidders answering bid questions

Boeing has started responding to questions from the Air Force about its aerial refueling [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bid, company tanker spokesman Bill Barksdale [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Friday.
The Air Force uses "Evaluation Notices" (ENs) to ask questions and seek clarification of bid details.
"We received our first set of ENs on Aug. 11 and have begun submitting our answers," Barksdale wrote. "One of the differences during this period compared with the draft Request for Proposals phase is that the government's questions and industry's answers will not be posted publicly. While transparency has been a key part of this overall effort, the ENs involve highly sensitive information and the subsequent responses would disadvantage a bidder if they were ever released."
Following the EN process, each bidder will be able to submit a Final Proposal Revision before the contract award, which is scheduled for November.

USA/Ravitailleurs-La date d'attribution du contrat devient floue

WASHINGTON, 3 septembre (Reuters) - La date d'attribution de l'appel d'offres pour les avions-ravitailleurs de l'armée de l'air américaine est devenue floue par rapport à l'échéance de mi-novembre évoquée à l'origine.
"La décision sera prise à l'automne", a déclaré vendredi le lieutenant-colonel Jack Miller, un porte-parole de l'US Air Force. "Ce que je vous donne est la dernière information et corrige et clarifie les précédentes déclarations."
"Automne" pourrait donc vouloir dire jusqu'au 20 décembre selon le calendrier.
Le général Mark Shackelford, un responsable des achats, avait indiqué le 18 juin que cet important contrat contrat d'au moins 25 milliards de dollars devait être attribué "à la mi-novembre". Le département de la Défense a déclaré aux candidats, à savoir EADS et Boeing , de se tenir prêts pour le 12 novembre.
Selon Jack Miller, le nom du gagnant pourrait être annoncé avant ou après le 12 novembre.
Avec l'appel d'offres en cours, c'est la troisième fois que l'armée de l'air américaine cherche à remplacer sa flotte de tankers KC-135 construits par Boeing dont la moyenne d'âge des appareils est de 50 ans.
Une première tentative, menée en partenariat avec Boeing, avait échoué en 2004 sur fond de scandale avec prison pour un ancien directeur financier de Boeing pour conflit d'intérêt.
En 2008, le Pentagone a attribué la construction des 179 avions-ravitailleurs à une équipe constituée de l'américain Northrop Grumman et d'EADS, mais la décision a été annulée après contestation par Boeing.
Les élections de mi-mandat au Congrès américain prévues pour le 2 novembre pourraient jouer un rôle, estiment les analystes.
"Il y a deux choses contre lesquelles je ne parierais pas", indique Richard Aboulafia du consultant Teal Group. "La première, c'est un nouveau retard; l'autre est la politisation. Ce sont les deux données avec lesquelles nous vivons avec ce programme."[/color]

Boeing Co left open the possibility of trimming its current bid to build 179 new U.S. refueling aircraft in its continuing drive to deny the deal to Airbus parent EADS, its European rival.

The U.S. Air Force is weighing competing bids on the contract, valued at $25 billion to $50 billion, that were due on July 9 and is asking the bidders follow-up questions.
The rematch marks the third time the Air Force has sought to start replacing its Boeing-built KC-135 tanker aircraft that on average are about 50 years old. The purchase has long been listed as the Air Force's top acquisition priority.
The government typically seeks a final proposal revision and if asked, "we'll respond to that," Dennis Muilenburg, the head of Boeing's weapons-building arm, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense summit in Washington on Tuesday.
"Our intent is to continue to offer a winning offer," he said when pressed on whether the company might lower its bid for competitive reasons. "Beyond that I can't comment until we get specific requests from the customer."
He said the tanker is a "national priority, and Boeing is prepared to respond with that kind of priority."
Guy Hicks, a spokesman for EADS's North American arm, said in response that an "interactive process with the customer" has begun.
"We have submitted a compelling proposal that meets our business case," he said in an email. "We have the most capable tanker available -- period."
The Air Force says it will award a contract this fall, which could mean as late as December 20.
Muilenburg said Chicago-based Boeing must balance its responsibilities to all stakeholders as it weighs any such bid revision. "We're going to make decisions here that are financially responsible," he said.
The initial Air Force tanker-acquisition effort, a would-be lease-purchase with Boeing, collapsed in 2004 amid a scandal that sent the Air Force's former second-ranking arms buyer and Boeing's ex-chief financial officer to prison for conflict-of-interest violations.
The Pentagon in 2008 awarded a 179-plane deal to a team made up of Northrop Grumman Corp ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) and EADS, only to have it overturned on appeal from Boeing. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found the Air Force had made enough errors in judging the contest to have changed its outcome.
Boeing's bid in the latest round of competition was cheaper than its previous, failed bid against Airbus for the 179-plane deal, Jean Chamberlin, Boeing's general manager for the bid, told Reuters in a July 9 telephone interview. Boeing remained concerned about a "heavily subsidized competitor," she said, alluding to a U.S.-European subsidies dispute that adds a diplomatically sensitive geo-economic dimension to the tanker mix.
Muilenburg declined to describe the 767 variant Boeing is offering this time but said it is an existing airframe with "in-line modifications," such as an all-new digital cockpit of the type used in the 787 Dreamliner.
Boeing's catalog has three different sizes of the passenger version of the 767, built to carry 181 to 245 people between 5,600 and 6,600 statute miles.
In an effort to deny information to its competitor, Boeing has not said publicly which airframe it would use, but Muilenburg's comments appeared to rule out a hybrid version that EADS contends would be risky to produce.

U.S. Aerospace Files Second KC-X Protest

U.S. Aerospace, the bidder kicked out of the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 replacement competition for allegedly submitting its proposal late, has filed a second protest of the service’s decision not to let the company compete for the $35 billion program.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which conducts bid-protest audits, lists the protest as having been filed Sept. 1 and due for a decision by Nov. 5.
U.S. Aerospace is teamed with Ukrainian state-owned Antonov to propose a tanker based on the An-70. However, Air Force officials said the proposal arrived roughly 5 min. past the 2 p.m. July 9 deadline and was ineligible for consideration. The source selection, meanwhile, continues between an EADS A330-200-based tanker and Boeing’s offer, based on the 767. Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford says a winner will be announced in the fall.
U.S. Aerospace’s second protest claims that the Air Force lacks sufficient evidence to prove that the proposal was actually submitted late, according to industry officials. The service apparently lacks videotape evidence from the security gate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, showing that the U.S. Aerospace messenger entered July 9 to deliver the documents. Additionally, security logs that would document the entry were apparently not printed, and electronic copies have not been produced or were on a computer hard drive that has crashed, an industry official says.
The Air Force’s claim not to have video evidence of the messenger at the guard gate lacks credibility, as the facility is fenced and monitored, industry officials say.
The company also raises questions about whether there was actually a dispute over the receipt of the proposal among officials in the KC-X program office. Company officials claim that it is possible a uniformed officer falsified or erroneously entered the time on the delivery receipt, industry officials say. Another Air Force official allegedly stated that she was unaware of the U.S. Aerospace messenger having arrived on base prior to the 2 p.m. deadline; company officials, however, say that e-mails and voice mails did inform this official of the messenger’s arrival time.
The fundamental legal question will likely be how the government defines receipt of a proposal and whether the Air Force followed its own rules on the matter. According to the request for proposals issued in February, the solicitations were to be addressed to the 836 Aeronautical Systems Group on 1755 Eleventh St. in Building 570. This is an office at Wright-Patterson, behind the security gate and fences. U.S. Aerospace’s attorneys have asked GAO for a hearing to cross-examine witnesses. They also are requesting documents and other evidence regarding the guard gate’s entry logs and the allegedly crashed hard drive.
U.S. Aerospace filed its first protest Aug. 2, refuting the decision to boot the company from the competition. Though protests typically are allowed up to 100 days to be resolved, GAO granted an Air Force request for an expedited review that will conclude in 65 days, or by Oct. 6. This new protest was filed in response to data gleaned by U.S. Aerospace in the Air Force’s response to the original protest, according to industry officials.
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Thrown-out KC-X Bidder Launches Second Protest

U.S. Aerospace's list of complaints about the U.S. Air Force's conduct in receiving its bid -- allegedly late -- for the KC-X competition is getting longer.

The company filed its second protest last week, claiming the Air Force intentionally misplaced or lost evidence that would prove its assertion that the U.S. Aerospace bid was late to Wright-Patterson AFB. The deadline for entries was July 9 at 2 p.m. And Air Force officials kicked U.S. Aerospace out for filing its bid 5 minutes late.

At issue in the protest is whether the company was late in delivering its bid and whether the Air Force accurately described the process for submitting bids. Also, the Air Force's record-keeping of the submission will come into question; the company claims the service lacks entry logs for the gate at Wright-Patterson AFB and also had a computer hard drive containing entry footage from security cameras crash.

Air Force officials have consistently declined to comment on the issues at play in the protest.

The second protest will be ruled upon by the Government Accountability Office by Nov. 5. This protest was filed after the Air Force provided its response to the first protest from U.S. Aerospace. The first protest was lodged Aug. 2, and GAO expects to rule on it by Oct. 6.

Meanwhile, Air Force officials are proceeding with the source selection for KC-X based on two proposals: Boeing's based on the 767 and EADS's based on the A330-200.

Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the military deputy to the Air Force acquisition secretary, says that the Small Diameter Bomb II competition was run cleanly. The lack of a protest from losing bidders Boeing/Lockheed Martin was a "woo hoo victory" for the service, which has lately been beleaguered by some high profile procurement missteps. Raytheon snagged that $450 million contract to build a 250-lb. glide bomb capable of destroying moving targets through weather.

Shackelford says that an independent team reviewed the SDB II process five times as it progressed, and this process will be duplicated for the KC-X procurement.

(Dow Jones)--Le directeur général de L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL) a indiqué que le groupe n'écartait pas la possibilité de prendre part aux offres pour le contrat sur les ravitailleurs destinés à l'armée de l'air américaine, a indiqué Reuters jeudi.

L-3 a toutefois décidé de ne pas s'associer à European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. pour faire une offre.

"La porte reste ouverte si EADS veut discuter à l'avenir, et Boeing aussi d'ailleurs", a déclaré Michael Strianese.

Boeing Co. (BA) et EADS sont en compétition pour remporter un contrat portant sur la construction de 179 ravitailleurs pour 50 milliards de dollars.

M.Strianese a affirmé que la décision du groupe de renoncer à un partenariat avec EADS n'était pas liée à des pressions politiques.

Le dirigeant a par ailleurs indiqué que L-3 pourrait dépenser 1 milliard de dollars pour des acquisitions, selon Reuters.

Dow Jones Newswires

Airbus a nommé Chris Emerson au poste de vice-président senior en charge de la stratégie produits et des prévisions de marché, avec effet immédiat.

Une partie de son rôle concernera les prévisions de marché globales de l'avionneur.

Il sera rattaché au vice-président exécutif en charge de la stratégie du groupe, Christian Scherer.

Il était depuis 2003 directeur financier d'EADS North America et conservera son rôle, notamment au niveau de l'appel d'offres des avions-ravitailleurs de l'armée américaine, jusqu'à la fin de l'année.

(C) Finance Plus

Ravailleurs : EADS peut revoir son offre

EADS est disposé à ajuster son offre pour le marché des avions ravitailleurs de l'US Air Force si celle-ci demandait une révision finale des propositions, a déclaré mardi Ralph Crosby, président de la filiale nord-américaine.

Les partisans de Boeing au Congrès accusent la société-mère d'Airbus de se préparer à du dumping, avec l'aide de subventions européennes, pour remporter ce contrat de 179 tankers évalué à une cinquantaine de milliards de dollars.

L'Air Force étudie les offres concurrentes d'EADS et de Boeing depuis juillet, dans l'optique d'accorder le contrat à l'automne.