Rep. Dicks wants to buy new tankers faster

Everett, Wash. – Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), a top House defense appropriator, wants to speed up the procurement of Air Force’s new mid-air refueling tankers.

“I would like to see this program accelerated,” Dicks said, adding that buying the new refueling tankers over 30 to 45 years is “ridiculous.”

{mosads}The multi-billion KC-X program is the Air Force’s No. 1 procurement priority. The Air Force plans to buy 179 tankers to replace Boeing’s KC-135s.

The initial plan is to buy 15 new airplanes a year, but the lawmaker said that is not good enough. A veteran defense appropriator, Dicks said that Congress could allocate more yearly funding for that program to allow the Air Force to buy up to 30 airplanes a year, but acknowledged that it would be hard to do in time of war.

He stressed, however, that lawmakers need to “make sure the money is there” for the Air Force’s most coveted program.

Dicks spoke to reporters after a rally at Boeing’s assembly facility in Everett, Wash. The lawmaker has been a long-time supporter of the aerospace company, which now finds itself in a cutthroat competition with Northrop Grumman for one of the Pentagon’s largest procurement programs.

Northrop Grumman is teamed with EADS North America, the subsidiary of the European Aeronautics Defence and Space conglomerate, which also owns Airbus.

Northrop is offering the Airbus 330 for the tanker competition while Boeing is offering its 767, which is assembled in Everett. Boeing also has a so-called finishing center in Wichita, Kan., where the airplanes are customized for military missions.

Both companies are going head-to-head as part of aggressive campaigns to marshal congressional and grassroots support for their bids to build the tankers. 

Boeing, Northrop Grumman and EADS North America all have powerful lawmakers in their court.  At Boeing’s rally, Dicks was joined by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a powerful defense appropriator, Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), a defense authorizer and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).

Meanwhile, Northrop and EADS are planning to assemble the planes in Mobile, Ala., a move that would create up to 1,500 aerospace jobs there. Overall, a Northrop contract would support about 24,000 jobs across the country, according to several reports.

The Northrop team has the backing of the Alabama and Mississippi delegations, including Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a veteran defense appropriator, Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a defense authorizer, and Reps. Robert “Bud” Cramer (D-Ala.), a defense appropriator, and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.).

“They have some very important people in Congress and we can’t take that lightly,” Dicks said.
However, the Northrop team has to fight the perception that its aircraft has less U.S. content than Boeing’s – a point that has become central to Boeing’s attack on Northrop Grumman in a competition that is becoming increasingly more intense. The A 330 will have at least 52 percent U.S. content, according to Northrop. The United States already is the largest supplier for the Airbus 330.

Boeing claims that its 767 will have 85 percent U.S. content with the rest coming mostly from Japan and Russia. Under Buy American rules, Boeing would need a waiver for the plane’s special metal content, which comes from Russia.

The Washington delegation on Monday shut down a proposal to split the first 80 tanker orders between Northrop Grumman and Boeing, arguing that a split buy would slow down the program.

Jacques Gansler, a former defense undersecretary for acquisitions during the Clinton administration, concluded in a new study that maintaining competition between Boeing and Northrop Grumman by awarding each company work on new refueling tankers could slash U.S. Air Force costs by about 30 percent, according to Reuters, which first reported the story.

Gansler said his study was partially funded by one of the suppliers, but declined to say which, according to the Reuters article.

“We cannot delay this program any longer,” said Larsen, adding that doing so would also bring up the cost of the program.

“A dual buy would take 18 more months, and that would be a mistake,” added Dicks. “I do not sense any interest in the Air Force for doing that.”

Boeing has wasted no time drumming out its message since early April, when it submitted its tanker proposal to the Air Force. Boeing officials are meeting regularly with congressional staffers and lawmakers, and now the company has launched a campaign to influence opinion in some of the 40 states it says will see job creation if its tanker bid is accepted.

Boeing claims that, if it wins the contract, the company would create 44,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country. The contract would support 9,000 direct and indirect jobs in Washington alone, generating $400 million in economic impact, according to Beverly Wyse, Boeing’s vice president of the 767 commercial program.

The aircraft maker previously calculated that a tanker contract for 100 planes would directly support 18,000 to 20,000 U.S. jobs. Boeing has eliminated about 80,000 jobs since 1997 and since 2001 has cut 27,000 jobs in Washington State.

The rally at Boeing’s Everett facility was meant to bring awareness to the program and the job creation not only in Washington but also around the country. Part of Boeing’s aggressive PR campaign was to fly a group of reporters based in the national capital to Everett for the event and a tour of the facility.

Both the company and the Air Force will be under sharp scrutiny over the tanker because of the lease deal they struck several years ago that developed into a procurement scandal that landed an Air Force official and Boeing executive in jail.

Roxana Tiron, a staff writer for The Hill, was one of the reporters invited on the trip.