Tankfly - Ny "krig" i kjømda mellom Boeing og Airbus - Defence Daily

Det var ganske opphetet mellom Boeing og Airbus for godt og vel tre år siden, men "buy American" slo igjennom, noe USAF antakelig angrer på i dag. KC-46 har stadig problemer, noe du kan lese om i artikkelen under denne. Ingen problemer er kjent vedr. Airbus A330 baserte MRIT. (Red.)

Another Boeing-Airbus tanker war is coming soon

By: Valerie Insinna    1 day ago

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A Republic of Singapore Air Force F-15SG refuels from an A330 MRTT aircraft over the U.S. state of Idaho during an exercise in September 2019. (Singapore's Defence Ministry)

WASHINGTON — Boeing and Airbus could find themselves duking it out as early as next year to provide aerial refueling aircraft to the U.S. Air Force, reigniting a bitter battle between Boeing’s KC-46 and Airbus’s A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport.

The Air Force on Tuesday released a sources sought notice for a non developmental tanker aircraft known as KC-Y that would bridge the gap between KC-46 and the next-generation KC-Z tanker.

The Air Force is looking for companies that could deliver as many as 15 commercial derivative tankers a year, with the new bridge tanker operational in 2029 — the same year the last KC-46 is due to be delivered.

The service plans to buy 140 to 160 KC-Ys to continue the replacement of its aging KC-135 fleet, which will be 70 years old when the bridge tanker is fielded, the solicitation stated. The competition could start as early as 2022, when the service issues a final request for proposals.

The Air Force provided few details on how KC-Y would differ from KC-46, only saying that it is still finalizing its requirements.

“However, the baseline for aircraft capability will be based on the requirements from phase one of tanker recapitalization, with subsequent and emerging requirements as defined by the Air Force,” the service stated in its solicitation.

With the Air Force emphasizing that vendors should provide non-developmental aircraft that can be fielded in less than a decade, a contest between Boeing and Airbus is all but ensured.

Mike Hafer, who leads Boeing’s global sales and marketing of the KC-46, said that the company looks forward to proposing the KC-46 for the KC-Y program.

“We’ve learned a lot and we’re going to focus on the Air Force’s needs, fulfilling the requirements of the contract, and providing exactly what the Air Force wants,” he told Defense News in an exclusive interview. “We’re ready to compete.”

Airbus, which teamed with Lockheed Martin in 2018 to offer the A330 MRTT in the United States, also plans to compete in the program, Lockheed spokeswoman Stephanie Stinn said.

 “We are responding to the U.S. Air Force’s Sources Sought Notification for the Bridge Tanker Program, offering a mission-ready solution to meet the Air Force’s future tanker requirements,” she said.

The KC-X competition ultimately resulted in the award of a $4.9 billion contract to Boeing in 2011, but it was preceded by years of contention.

The Air Force had awarded Airbus — which was then called EADS and partnered with Northrop Grumman — a contract for the program in 2008, but Boeing’s legal protest was successful and overturned the award. Northrop then pulled out of the competition in 2010, and Airbus’s solo bid with the A330 was ultimately successful.

Since winning the KC-46 program, Boeing has incurred more than $5 billion in losses as technical glitches have stacked up and required expensive fixes. (The terms of Boeing’s fixed-price contract with the Air Force requires it to pay for any costs in excess of the initial $4.9 billion award.)

However, Hafer was confident that Boeing’s struggles on the KC-46 wouldn’t influence its chances of winning KC-Y.

“That’s a lot of risk that’s been retired. These are identified issues that we’ve put to bed and we’re closing very rapidly with the other ones out there,” he said. “This was an investment that the U.S. Air Force has paid [and] is getting the capability they want and need.”

 However, some lawmakers have shown interest in canceling Boeing’s KC-46 contract and moving that business to Airbus.

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday, Reps. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Mike Rogers, R-Ala., expressed frustration with the KC-46 and asked Air Force leaders to consider re-competing the contract due to Boeing’s poor performance.

Republican Rep. Jerry Carl — who represents Mobile, Ala., where Airbus currently makes commercial planes — made the case that U.S. Air Force fighters operating in Europe regularly receive fuel from the A330 tanker.

“Knowing that we’ve got an aircraft that can be built in America, that could be already delivered because we’re up to about three a month coming out of Mobile right now — not this particular plane, but basically the same scale — why are we not bringing this back up for a bid?” he asked.

Acting Air Force Secretary John Roth said but the service currently doesn’t see a cost-benefit to re-opening the KC-X competition.

“I take your point in terms of the history of the contact,” he said. “But…we’re concerned that if we tried to go into a new contract vehicle, that would put additional delays into the program that we simply don’t think would be efficacious for us.” The Air Force intends to buy 179 KC-46s over the program of record, wrapping up procurement in fiscal year 2027. On Wednesday, Boeing announced the delivery of the 46th KC-46, which flew to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., that afternoon.

More cost overruns are coming for Boeing as the KC-46 program logs another two technical deficiencies

By: Valerie Insinna    15 hours ago

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U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Joshua Poticha, a crew chief assigned to the 157th Maintenance Group, New Hampshire Air National Guard, marshals the 157th Air Refueling Wing’s 11th KC-46A tanker, Pease Air National Guard Base, New Hampshire, Dec. 11, 2020. (Tech. Sgt. Aaron Vezeau/U.S. Air National Guard)

WASHINGTON — Boeing will have to pay to fix two new technical problems afflicting the KC-46 refueling tanker, which the U.S. Air Force has designated as “category 1” deficiencies that rank among the program’s most critical issues.

The Air Force has discovered that drain tubes in the KC-46′s air refueling receptacle — which are used to remove water from the aircraft — can become cracked when the tanker operates in cold temperatures, the service stated in response to questions from Defense News. According to the service, this issue has occurred approximately three times, when water in the tubes froze and expanded, forming cracks.

The second problem involves a software bug in the KC-46′s Flight Management System, which has triggered “navigation anomalies,” according to Boeing.

The Air Force said this issue has been limited to “isolated incidents,” most recently during a March 3 flight over the Pacific Ocean. Then, the crew “deferred to other navigation methods and did not declare an in-flight emergency” before landing safely in Honolulu, the service said.

Boeing added that the problem did not make the aircraft less safe and that each KC-46 has since been cleared for flight.

 “Boeing will address both issues at its own expense,” Air Force spokesman Capt. Josh Benedetti said in a statement.

“There are no operational restrictions on fielded KC-46s due to either of these deficiencies,” he said. “The [program office] and Boeing have established operational processes and maintenance procedures to mitigate impacts and ensure the issues do not add extra risk to personnel, aircraft or operations.”

As a short term strategy for dealing with the cracked aerial refueling receptacle tube issue, Boeing has issued inspection guidance to the Air Force to mitigate known risk factors. To permanently fix the problem, however, it will have to redesign the drain line tubes and retrofit existing KC-46s with the modification, the service said.

General Electric — Boeing’s subcontractor for the Flight Management System — is already testing a software fix aimed at resolving stability problems.

To mitigate current risks, Boeing has issued guidance to help KC-46 crews to reset the system if a problem is experienced during flight. It has also delivered updated pre-flight procedures aimed at decreasing the likelihood of a software anomaly, the Air Force said.

The Air Force classified the two new problems as “category 1” deficiencies in May 2021.

Four other CAT-1 problems remain on the books: two issues with the Remote Vision System —the camera and sensor suite that provides imagery of the receiver aircraft to boom operators during a refueling — which requires Boeing to redesign the system; a problem with the stiffness of the boom that prevents some aircraft from being able to receive fuel; and an issue with fuel leaks.

Because the imagery currently provided by the tanker’s RVS is degraded in certain weather conditions — making it more difficult for boom operators to refuel other aircraft — the service has restricted the operational missions the KC-46 can perform. Air Mobility Command plans to make the aircraft available to U.S. Transportation Command for limited operations sometime this summer.

Boeing is locked into paying any cost that exceeds its $4.9 billion firm, fixed-price contract with the Air Force, and has so far paid more than $5 billion out-of-pocket to resolve technical problems that have arisen since the agreement was signed in 2011.

“We’re paying $226 million a copy for a lemon,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., during a June 16 House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Air Force budget. “Every month, we hear about another category 1 deficiency … I’m frustrated.”After Wittman asked whether the Air Force would consider recompeting the contract, acting Air Force Secretary John Roth said the service believes sticking with the KC-46 provides the most economical path for recapitalizing its aging tanker fleet.

“We’ve been working with the contractor. … We’re going to work on the Remote Vision System; we’re going to work on the boom, and hopefully they’ll be ready by 2023, 2024,” Roth said.

The Air Force plans on ordering a total 179 KC-46s throughout the program, and thus far 46 aircraft have been delivered.

Boeing is set to complete a preliminary design review of the new RVS 2.0 system in July, according to Air Mobility Command.

The two new deficiencies will not impact AMC’s plan for an interim upgrade of the tanker’s existing vision system.

 “We are pleased with the work of the combined joint technical team and the significant improvement to the image our air refueling operators will see when refueling receivers with RVS 2.0,” AMC said in a statement. “We believe we are on track to provide a great solution to the joint warfighter in 2024.”