GFAFB tentative home for new refueling tankers
Posted: 08 Mar 2011, 20:06
Four of the first six new air refueling tankers slated to join the Air Force fleet in 2017 tentatively are to go to Grand Forks Air Force Base, according to an Air Force Times report based on contractor search documents.
The Grand Forks base tentatively would received 12 tankers in total, the military newspaper reported.
Final decisions on basing have not been made, Air Force Times reported.
According to Monday's Air Force Times article, Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma tentatively would get the other two in 2017, based on Air Force documents submitted during the contractor search "to help evaluators estimate military construction costs and a portion of the life-cycle costs" associated with the arrival of 164 new tankers at 11 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve bases.
The tankers are to be called KC-46As.
The Air Force announced Feb. 24 that Boeing had been selected over EADS as the manufacturer of the new refueling tankers, intended to replace the KC-135 aircraft that had flown out of Grand Forks through last year.
The older tankers first came to prominence in the Air Force in the 1950s.
GFAFB has been converting its base in recent years to its new mission centered around unmanned aircraft, or unmanned aerial systems (UAS). But area leaders and North Dakota's congressional delegation have pushed to be the mission base for some of the new tankers - before, during and after realignment hearings in the past decade set a scheduled end of Grand Forks Air Force Base's KC-135 mission last year.
But efforts to award a contract and begin air tanker manufacturing stalled several times over a decade.
Air Force News reported that EADS, based in Europe, still could decide to protest the February contract award and, if it does, "may have the upper hand in a political battle," according to one analyst.
Check back to GrandForksHerald.com for more on this story later today, and in Wednesday's Herald.
The Grand Forks base tentatively would received 12 tankers in total, the military newspaper reported.
Final decisions on basing have not been made, Air Force Times reported.
According to Monday's Air Force Times article, Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma tentatively would get the other two in 2017, based on Air Force documents submitted during the contractor search "to help evaluators estimate military construction costs and a portion of the life-cycle costs" associated with the arrival of 164 new tankers at 11 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve bases.
The tankers are to be called KC-46As.
The Air Force announced Feb. 24 that Boeing had been selected over EADS as the manufacturer of the new refueling tankers, intended to replace the KC-135 aircraft that had flown out of Grand Forks through last year.
The older tankers first came to prominence in the Air Force in the 1950s.
GFAFB has been converting its base in recent years to its new mission centered around unmanned aircraft, or unmanned aerial systems (UAS). But area leaders and North Dakota's congressional delegation have pushed to be the mission base for some of the new tankers - before, during and after realignment hearings in the past decade set a scheduled end of Grand Forks Air Force Base's KC-135 mission last year.
But efforts to award a contract and begin air tanker manufacturing stalled several times over a decade.
Air Force News reported that EADS, based in Europe, still could decide to protest the February contract award and, if it does, "may have the upper hand in a political battle," according to one analyst.
Check back to GrandForksHerald.com for more on this story later today, and in Wednesday's Herald.