With new tanker RFP released, will Northrop still bid?

The final request for proposals (RFP) for the lucrative KC-X Tanker replacement fleet was released on Wednesday, February 24th, with only minor changes compared to the draft version that was released last year.  Boeing and Northrop (in partnership with EADS) are vying for the $50 billion 179 aircraft contract, which will replace the U.S. Air Force's aging fleet of KC-135 Tankers, some of which are older than 50 years.  But Northrop believes that the current evaluation system as specified in the RFP remains biased towards Boeing, and are still threatening to pull out of the competition.  As such, Northrop's political supporters have called for a dual-buy approach, although this could be problematic because the U.S. Air Force envisions an order of 12 aircraft per year.  The dual-buy approach would boost that number to 24, meaning that the Air Force would have to find additional resources to help fund those extra planes.  From Boeing's perspective, they're disappointed that no language was added to the RFP to address the European Union subsidies issue with regards to Airbus aircraft (Northrop's tanker bid would be based on an Airbus A330 platform), but overall they were satisfied with the requirements.

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