South Korea to acquire four tankers

South Korea has announced that they are going to acquire four tanker aircraft, with bidding to start in 2015. The two most likely contenders will be the Boeing KC-46, and the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport. Korea has one of the most powerful air forces in the region, but no tanker capability.

This will allow them to loiter fighters over a group of islands that they've been disputing custody over with Japan. Oh good, something to cause more tension in the area, because China is doing that on her own already. Korea needs them, so they don't have to rely on the US as much, but does the region really need more tension?

South Korea plans to acquire four tanker aircraft for induction into the air force by 2017.

Seoul's Defense Acquisition Program Administration said bidding will commence in February 2015, with a contractor to be selected by October 2015, according a report carried by official news agency Yonhap.

Seoul estimates the value of the programme to be over won (W) 1 trillion ($900 million), the report adds.

www.flightglobal.com...

Originally posted by Zaphod58
South Korea has announced that they are going to acquire four tanker aircraft, with bidding to start in 2015. The two most likely contenders will be the Boeing KC-46, and the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport. Korea has one of the most powerful air forces in the region, but no tanker capability.

This will allow them to loiter fighters over a group of islands that they've been disputing custody over with Japan. Oh good, something to cause more tension in the area, because China is doing that on her own already. Korea needs them, so they don't have to rely on the US as much, but does the region really need more tension?

South Korea plans to acquire four tanker aircraft for induction into the air force by 2017.

Seoul's Defense Acquisition Program Administration said bidding will commence in February 2015, with a contractor to be selected by October 2015, according a report carried by official news agency Yonhap.

Seoul estimates the value of the programme to be over won (W) 1 trillion ($900 million), the report adds.

www.flightglobal.com...

Four tankers at 900 million is a pretty good deal. South Korea isn't going to have to pay any R & D which is good for them.

On another note, the KC-46 had its Critical Design Review recently. Even though it was 700 million over budget in the development phase (which boeing had to fork up because of the fixed cost contract), Its estimated to be ahead of schedule and expects to deliver the first aircraft to the Air Force in 2016, instead of 2017. All in all, 18 tankers should be delivered to the air force by the end of 2017. That being said, the air force is the number 1 customer, so South Korea getting their four by 2017 might be a stretch.

One of the Pentagon's largest weapons initiatives, the contract for just the U.S. is 52 billion bucks. Over 179 aircraft, the per aircraft cost is around 290 million. Boeing expects the total lifetime deal with just the U.S. to hit around a 100 billion dollars. So loosing 700 million in the R and D phase is peanuts.

The final report for the Critical Design Review, or CDR, hasn't been released, but following the review Boeing released a statement stating: "Boeing believes the review went well and initial feedback from our customer has been positive. Final approval by the USAF is anticipated in the near future." If Boeing does get CDR approval, it'll be able to move onto tanker production, something Boeing and the Air Force eagerly anticipate. More good news? Boeing is scheduled to deliver the first 18 out of 179 tankers in 2017. But Boeing has said that if there aren't major issues reveal in the CDR, it expects to deliver the first completed tanker by the end of 2016. Considering the Air Force has said the KC-46 tanker is its No. 1 modernization priority as it replaces the aging KC-135, this may be especially good news for Boeing's reputation, which in the past hasn't fared as well.

KC-46

reply to post by Zaphod58


The US Gov is the seller for military equipment yes?

Boeing constructs the crafts for the USAF, then the USAF in turns sells them to other nations? I wonder what kind of mark-up they add...

MDDoxs
reply to post by Zaphod58

 

The US Gov is the seller for military equipment yes?

Boeing constructs the crafts for the USAF, then the USAF in turns sells them to other nations? I wonder what kind of mark-up they add...

Actually the government just gives the ok to Boeing to sell to foriegn countries. Similar to the JSF. The government is making the exportable version of it a little less sophisticated for sale to over seas ally's. And actually other countries usually end up paying less for the aircraft because they arent bearing the cash flow of research and development, except with the JSF. Some countries are paying a little for development.

reply to post by boomer135


So the us government is receiving nothing from the direct sale of military equipment? I guess they receive some kind of duty, fee and tax on the sale.

MDDoxs
reply to post by boomer135

 

So the us government is receiving nothing from the direct sale of military equipment? I guess they receive some kind of duty, fee and tax on the sale.

They get a lower cost per aircraft and cost per engine price. The more people that order, the lower the cost.