X-Day: The winner of the tanker contest announcement at 5:10pm EST

Update, 0930 PST: DOD has confirmed, the award will be announced at 5:10 PM EST and broadcast on The Pentagon Channel.

Original Post:

The Pentagon Channel will provide coverage, if the past is followed today. The time is 5pm EST. Update: A Tweet from AvTips says 4:45pm, without citing sources, so we suggest having everything ready by that time.

You can bet the media in Mobile (AL), Wichita (KS) and Seattle (WA) will also provide breaking news coverage. We know for sure that KIRO-TV plans to do so. We expect Twitter members will be ready to go, include Reuters Aerospace coverage.

22 Comments on “X-Day: The winner of the tanker contest announcement at 5:10pm EST

  1. Here we go again!…:)

    Wouldn’t it be funny if Boeing was awarded it, because many people think EADS has it locked up. Boeing was in that position last time…just saying…:)

  2. THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX wins again and the American Taxpayer loses again. Congress and President Obama must stop the folly of the redundant, overpriced KC-X. The American Worker will also lose if the KC-X contract goes off shore. Really, this is greed and bad government run amuck….

    Daniel Sterling Sample
    SPACE DESIGNS
    Los Angeles

    sample.daniel@gmail.com

    • Mr. DSS

      Are you using your TV set for 1950’s because it still works and you think “color is just a fad” ? The American warfighters deserve nothing but the best. I for one am willing to have my tax dollars pay for new equipment and allow the retirment of huge maintenance costs and out of production hardware. My preferred choice is an award to Boeing but these old airplanes need to go!

    • I don’t get you. Are you really that short sighted.
      If you would produce a plane on a already existing production line you don’t need to build a new one, like the advantage of Boeing. If, like EADS would, need to build one first, you pay local contractors for the build of the production site and tooling. Tax money flow right back to you mate. If, like some claim and I think is plausible, a lot of base facilities need to be changed to accommodate the biggest airplane of the two. Again you need to call some local contractor and pour some new concrete slabs and all that. Another benefit for “The American Worker” and it didn’t cost him and her to much because that bid would have been the lowest of the two.

      Try to explain, with arguments for a start, yourself next time.

  3. I will be glad if it ends today and no protest is filed in the next few weeks. I am still hoping for a Boeing win. The USAF has 10 days to brief the looser, then they have 10 days to file a GAO protest. The GAO would have 100 days to come to a decision.

  4. Boeing’s stock is up by close to two dollars this morning…and interesting move on the day of selection.

    Yesterday Boeing announced that it would create a second fixed line in Everett for the increase in production of the 787. I believe the space will come from the reduction in the size of the 767 line.

    Having read that, I thought to myself that EADS will win the competition but at a price that Boeing could or would not match and the committment is being made to the increase in 787 production.

    So, I am surprised at the stock action but not convinced of a BA win in this protracted folly.

  5. Maybe the market looked at the technical risks involved and decided the tanker business has been pretty much a dud for Boeing. Did they ever end up making any money on the Japanese and Italian deals? Those guys don’t tend to care about national prestige. It’s all profits to them.

  6. Update: A Tweet from AvTips says 4:45pm, without citing sources, so we suggest having everything ready by that time.

    Hmm, that’s 5 minutes before the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to lift-off from KSC’s Pad 39-A on its its last flight. And the ATV-2 (Johannes Kepler) just docked to the ISS. Lot’s of things happening today. 😉

    NASA TV Live Coverage Now: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

  7. BAInvestor :Boeing’s stock is up by close to two dollars this morning…and interesting move on the day of selection.
    Yesterday Boeing announced that it would create a second fixed line in Everett for the increase in production of the 787. I believe the space will come from the reduction in the size of the 767 line.
    Having read that, I thought to myself that EADS will win the competition but at a price that Boeing could or would not match and the committment is being made to the increase in 787 production.
    So, I am surprised at the stock action but not convinced of a BA win in this protracted folly.

    Rpx :Maybe the market looked at the technical risks involved and decided the tanker business has been pretty much a dud for Boeing. Did they ever end up making any money on the Japanese and Italian deals? Those guys don’t tend to care about national prestige. It’s all profits to them.

    An interesting development. I wonder what Wall Street knows?

    • They know it’s a win for Boeing regardless. If BA wins it, it’s a nice little dependable revenue stream that’ll keep an existing production line open for a while and won’t cost very much in terms of resources. If they lose, resources are released to devote to 787 ramp-up, 737 new design, 777NG, etc, especially once the 767 line is shutdown, which won’t take long in the case of a loss on KCX. The only way BA loses in this is if there’s another protest (as the loser or from the loser.)

      Most of the same could be said for Airbus, however, I think they’d really like to break into the US defense market in a big way, and this contract could grease the skids so-to-speak in a lot of other areas, so losing this would be quite a bit more of a hit to them than it would be to BA.

      The only loser here is the US taxpayer thanks to their government’s obsession with sole-source contracts of this size. We all see now how much the taxpayers saved in sole-sourcing the JSF…..how many 10’s of millions per aircraft is it over original contract award cost now?

  8. Priceless:
    “The US Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in ‘psychological operations’ to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war. An officer who tried to stop the operation was railroaded by military investigators. (see also the Hatch Act of 1939).”

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/another-runaway-general-army-deploys-psy-ops-on-u-s-senators-20110223

    There are surprises in every nook and cranny and a whiff of “Dr. Strangelove”

      • No tanker in there anyway.

        Mc Chrystal has used Rolling Stone Magazine to get out of an impossible situation some time ago (better some egg on your face than trauma and haemoraging at the other end.
        Question is: Who is the next to reorganise his career prospects ?

  9. Well, in about 35 minutes, we may know. I am going to tune in the Pentagon Channel around 1700 EST (1600 my time).

  10. Rene :still the kc767 frankentanker wins

    Not a “frankentanker”, but now a US Air Force tanker. How is that “other, bigger, but not selected” tanker doing? You know, the one that has the option of ejecting its Boom.

    Uwe :No tanker in there anyway.
    Mc Chrystal has used Rolling Stone Magazine to get out of an impossible situation some time ago (better some egg on your face than trauma and haemoraging at the other end.Question is: Who is the next to reorganise his career prospects ?

    Retired USAF General, and former AMC Commander and now a sitting board member with EADS-NA, Art Lichte.

    I wonder when he will put in for unemployment?

    • Hosianna, redemption is near.
      At last a poster performing to expectations.

      Who coined the “Frankentanker” moniker?

      [Deleted. Editor.]

      • The originator of “Frankentanker” remains a mystery, but is believed to have been from a Northrop employee in California. It’s never been proved nor acknowledged, however.

        • Thanks.
          Sticks like PI(I)Gs.
          Though that was coined by WallStreet bankers to give valuable “taste”.

    • i like the kc767 frankentanker win

      like the 737 mishmash p8 poseidon

      go frankentanker!

      er.. kc-46a

      go derivative 767ng!

      for those who cannot get into 787 long line

      and freighter version

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