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.
Google for A310MRTT. In active service at German and Canadian Air Force. That plane lost against KC-767 in early 2002 because it was deemed to small.
Boeing has their facility in place and they don’t have any of the delivered operational yet.