Air Force finally plans to study options for replacing tankers

After two years of pressure from lawmakers, the Air Force will study a variety of options for replacing its aging fleet of KC-135 tanker aircraft, according to a letter sent Tuesday to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., by Michael Wynne, the Pentagon's acting acquisition chief.

The study, known as an Analysis of Alternatives, is required by the president's fiscal 2004 wartime supplemental spending package, approved by Congress last year.

Study guidance Wynne delivered Tuesday to the Air Force appears to have no bearing on the Air Force's stalled plan to acquire 100 Boeing 767 tankers through a combination lease-purchase arrangement, a plan currently on hold while a series of government probes and reviews is completed.

But results of the pending 18-month Analysis of Alternatives could open the door to increased competition for the 101st tanker and beyond.

The study parameters, outlined in a six-page document, appear to be less arbitrary than those outlined in a June 2002, Air Force operational-requirements document.

The service has been accused of allowing Boeing personnel to shape the document to reflect 767 capabilities. But the AOA guidance appears to be more objective and includes the need to examine joint service refueling requirements previously ignored in the operational-requirements document.

In addition, the option of leasing commercially derivative aircraft is absent from the AOA guidance, although it does include an option to "acquire and modify" used 767 jets, leaving open the possibility of leasing used aircraft.

However, the guidance leaves no room to consider the contribution of air refueling by commercial entities that could provide fee-for-service tanking. The Navy currently uses some commercial tanker capabilities.