{"id":194663,"date":"2008-08-30T05:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-30T10:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/08\/30\/boeing-drags-its-heels-on-air-force-bid-seeking-alpha\/"},"modified":"2008-08-30T05:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-30T10:42:00","slug":"boeing-drags-its-heels-on-air-force-bid-seeking-alpha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2008\/08\/30\/boeing-drags-its-heels-on-air-force-bid-seeking-alpha\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing Drags Its Heels on Air Force Bid &#8211; Seeking Alpha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it&#8217;s now clear that <a href=\"http:\/\/voices.washingtonpost.com\/government-inc\/2008\/08\/boeing_more_time_or_else.html\">Boeing wants a 6 monthextension on the bidding process<\/a>.  It&#8217;s clear to them that a simplw resubmit would put them at a disadvantage, so they are looking at making significant modificiation, something like moving to the 767-400, or 777.<\/p>\n<p>Usurprisingly, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/ap\/financialnews\/D92NI0901.htm\"> Northrop-Grumman thinks that any extension is a bad idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The request puts the USAF between a rock and a hard place, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/8c98854a-70ac-11dd-b514-0000779fd18c.html\">it would push the program into the next administration<\/a>, which is likely to make significant cuts in military procurement.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Stephen Trimble notes that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/blogs\/the-dewline\/2008\/08\/whats-the-next-move-for-northr.html\">a delay might have some real benefits for Northrop Grumman too<\/a>.  The KC-30 bid was based on the Airbus A330-200 passenger airliner, but since the bid was made, airbus has flown an A330-200 freighter, which would be a bit better airframe for the role.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, it looks like that A330-200F <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/blogs\/the-dewline\/2008\/08\/tanker-questions-genx-upgrade.html\">would be able to use the GE GEnx-2B engine<\/a>, which promises double digit percentage increase in fuel economy.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/articles\/2008\/08\/26\/315112\/northrop-declines-to-rule-out-platform-switch-for-new-kc-x.html\">Northrop declines to rule out platform switch for new KC-X bid<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flightglobal.com\/blogs\/the-dewline\/2008\/08\/tanker-questions-genx-upgrade.html\">Tanker questions: GEnx upgrade for KC-30? KC-747 vs KC-A380? &#8211; The DEW Line<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, it&#8217;s now clear that Boeing wants a 6 monthextension on the bidding process. It&#8217;s clear to them that a simplw resubmit would put them at a disadvantage, so they are looking at making significant modificiation, something like moving to the 767-400, or 777. Usurprisingly, Northrop-Grumman thinks that any extension is a bad idea. The &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1007,1008],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-defense-procurement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}