Reuters moved an interesting tanker story today, saying the Air Force has conceded that Boeing’s KC-767 would be cheaper to operate over the life cycle of the plane. The Air Force had initially said that the KC-30, the winning tanker bid put forth by Northrop Grumman and the parent company of Airbus, would be cheaper.
Northrop officials still maintain that their tanker is better, and that cost is only one of several criteria. That may be true, but you know the Boeing folks are looking for anything to show that the Air Force did a poor job in evaluating the competing bids.
All this comes about a week before the GAO’s deadline to rule on Boeing’s protest over the contract. The next few days will be very interesting.