Posted on 03/19/2010 8:38:22 PM PDT by jazusamo
Here's the latest twist in the Air Force tanker saga: The Russians are coming.
Russia's government-owned aerospace company will announce Monday it is competing against Boeing for the $40 billion refueling tanker contract, a Los Angeles attorney for the company said Friday.
United Aircraft of Moscow plans to unveil a U.S. partner and offer a modified version of its Ilyushin-96 wide-body plane, John Kirkland, head of the corporate securities practice at Luce Forward, said in an interview.
The still-unidentified partner, "a U.S. public company and existing defense contractor," would assemble the planes in the U.S., he said. The Russian interest in the tanker bid was first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal.
United Aircraft was formed under the authority of then-President Vladimir Putin in 2006 to combine some of the most famous names in Russian aviation: Sukhoi, Tupolev, Ilyushin, MiG.
Kirkland acknowledged it faces "significant hurdles ... there are obvious security issues, there are sanctions and restrictions on buying things from Russia."
He insisted, however, that "the IL-96 meets every single one of the final RFP (request for proposal) requirements, and it comes in at a lower price (than Boeing), so if it's a fair competition, we win."
One leading U.S. aerospace analyst thinks otherwise.
"What a completely bizarre idea," said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. "There would be enormous political, technical and performance barriers. It will not happen."
For one thing, he said, "The Il-96's operating economics have more in common with the KC-135's than with the Airbus and Boeing jets scheduled to replace the KC-135's."
Kirkland said that might be true of the current IL-96, which uses four engines. But United Aircraft will pitch a tanker using two modern, fuel-efficient Western engines, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
If we wouldn’t deal with the French why would we deal with the Russians? I can’t believe they are serious about this. Some sort of bizarre Russian idea of a joke is my guess.
Well, the Russian tanker will probably be able to take-off and land on airstrips that would normally destroy the other’s landing gear. Russian planes have always been built to withstand the effects of poor quality airfields.
Not saying that it’d be better in any other sense, though.
The Russians are nuts to think we’d buy them no matter the price.
You forget. We have a marxist in charge of things now
Yeah, Zer0 cuddling up to Putin is no surprise but something like this could be the final straw for Zer0.
"That'll show 'em who knows how to negotiate around here" the Marxist thought to himself.
Not sure about cuddling up. BUt he might be taking orders from him. The KGB and Obama’s history are deeply intertwined.
Sure makes our president the idiot when he says something like that to an adversary.
Taking orders from him is more likely the case, he’s not smart enough to realize Putin’s the enemy.
I hear you, obamacare and his RATS got old long ago.
About a week or so ago I saw an article posted on FR about the new Russian fighter that is supposed to compete with the F-22 Raptor. I made the comment that one day the USA will be buying those from the Russians. People thought I was crazy for saying such but look at this little piece of news. The Russians are bidding on the contract for the USAF tanker. Won’t be long before we will be buying those new Russian fighter jets! LOL!
I am not sure who I trust more now. The Russians cannot be any worse than the demos in Washington.
Actually a tleast with the Russians you know what you’re going to get...they are who they say they are.
Actually a tleast with the Russians you know what you’re going to get...they are who they say they are.
The Russians are nuts to think we’d buy them no matter the price.
Not if 0bama has any say in the matter.
The way Russians like to build things, a dozen of them might hold enough fuel for our entire fleet.
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