tankers carry only enuff fuel for their mission, and the a330 would have to carry more fuel because it burns more fuel per hour than the 767, one of the most efficient airplanes flying ( even tho its design is 20 years old ).
additionally, it the "number" of booms in the air that is important, so the more expensive a330 would end up having less booms in the air, something a fighter strike force running low on fuel would find unacceptable.
the 767 can actually climb to altitude faster than an F4 phantom, its climb rate is phenomenal.
One other , one would say very crucial factor, is its manueverability-the a330 has limits on its load factor, while the 767 can pull more than 2.5 gs if need be.
if you look at the air cargo fleets, you will see that the 767 has a large following in customers, due to its efficiency, capability, and reliability.
I totally agree with you that the number of booms available is the most critical factor but the A-330 and the 767 will only sport one apiece. Even though the heavier A-330 will burn more fuel to carry the extra weight it will still have an undeniable advantage over the 767 in the total offload available to receivers. My experience in the gulf war was that the tankers carried as much as they could to prolong their station time and service as many receivers as possible. In that scenario the extra fuel would be critical.
I don’t differ with the author on several critical issues such as the inexperience of EADS building tankers and the fact they haven’t broken ground on the proposed construction facility. I also agree with him that getting the tooling in place and getting a trained workforce up and running will be more time consuming than they anticipate. I think in the final analysis the 767 will be the right choice but the author was being a little deceptive regarding the two issues where I questioned his facts.
“the 767 can actually climb to altitude faster than an F4 phantom, its climb rate is phenomenal.”
(BLANK STARE)........
I assume you just made that up on the fly. You do realize that the F-4 Phantom held the Time-To-Climb record for about a decade...until the F-15 Tomcat beat it.