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Date for tanker contract award changed again

Air Force officials have again revised the date they expect to award the contentious tanker contract, moving it up a month to Jan. 31.

Last week, industry and congressional sources said the word on the contract was that it would not be awarded until Feb. 29. Originally, the service had expected to have a winner in the $30 billion, 179-plane tanker competition by the end of the calendar year.

Bids for the contract were submitted April 10, and the competitors have been fielding questions from the service ever since. The Air Force hopes to have the first tanker in the air by 2013 to replace the aging KC-135s, some of which have been in service for 40 years.

Service officials said more time is needed to ensure that all parties involved have a clear understanding of the proposal and requirements.

“The complexity and amount of information provided by the industry teams competing for the work have required more time to evaluate and have led to an extension of the KC-X source selection schedule,” Air Force representatives said via e-mail.

There are only two competitors for the contract, the EADS/Northrop Grumman team, offering an A330 variant called the KC-30, and Boeing’s modified 767 tanker. Both teams intend to militarize commercial planes already in production, both are testing the waters of the international market and both have had their share of problems.

Boeing landed the first contract in the international tanker game several years ago, when the Italians and the Japanese signed on for four planes each. But those deliveries have been long delayed — more than two years for the Italians. Boeing has been sorting out a high-speed airflow problem caused by the pylons used to hold wing refueling pods since 2005; Boeing is now flight-testing the latest fix.

More recent tanker awards have gone to Airbus, with Australia, Britain and the United Arab Emirates selecting the A330, though the plane’s refueling boom has yet to be tested in flight.