Yesterday Northrop announced that it is considering not participating in thew new KC-X competition. They are concerned that the the way the price requirement is structured may not be fair to them. They are also pursuing the complaint that their cost data was provided to Boeing during the protest of the last award and want access to the same information.

If Northrop and EADS don’t submit a bid it will be hard to get actual competition on the contract. That would leave just one submission, Boeing, or perhaps two from them if they go the route of having a 777 as well as a 767 proposal. This situation would make it hard for the Air Force to proceed.

The chances of Northrop doing this is low and the Department of Defense realizes it. This is the largest procurement coming down the road and both EADS and Boeing need the work. Of course if there is really a belief that their bid cannot win no matter what then Northrop should just save the money and not prepare one. This is only the draft RFP so the next year or so should be interesting.

EADS North America announced today that former NASA Administrator and Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe will take over as their CEO. The current CEO, Ralph Crosby, will remain with the company and head up the tanker proposal. At the announcement EADS CEO Louis Gallois reiterated the company’s desire to do business in the United States and hinted at further acquisitions of companies.

O’Keefe most recently had been the head of General Electrics aviation unit.

Boeing has maintained a facility at Wichita, KS for years. In their last proposal for the KC-X Boeing planned on using this plant to do the military conversions of the aircraft as it has for so many others in the past. Unfortunately with the new proposal Boeing no longer makes that guarantee. They are trying to minimize their total cost and that may require the use of another site then Wichita. Unfortunately this will be bad for the Wichita plant as it has been looking for work to keep it open in the future.

As the proposals come in things like this will be interesting to look out for.

Boeing has been investigating offering two different proposals to meet the KC-X RFP. One of these would be based like last time on the 767 platform. There are already versions of this tanker being built for foriegn countries. Another would use the 777 air liner. This is larger then the 767 and would carry more fuel farther. The EADS A330 which won the last abortive attempt was the larger of the two aircraft bid and supposedly that helped it win. This approach though will make Boeing do a great deal more work then Northrop and EADS have to do as they already have the foundation for their new proposal as does Boeing with the 767 bid.