EADS, Rolls-Royce, Thales Join Forces To Bid For British Tanker Requirement

Defense Daily, Jan 25, 2001

The European Aeronautic, Defence and Space Co. (EADS), Britain's Rolls- Royce, and France's Thales have formed the AirTanker joint venture to bid for Britain's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) private finance initiative, which is worth more than $13 billion over the life of the program, the companies said yesterday.

The move comes after Rolls-Royce, leading the former AirReach team, Thales, leading the former EuroTanker team, and Britain's BAE SYSTEMS and the Serco Group were invited to bid for the FSTA program earlier this month (Defense Daily, Jan. 4).

The former AirReach and EuroTanker teams have now been merged into the AirTanker joint venture and will not submit separate bids for FSTA, Rolls-Royce and Thales spokesmen told Defense Daily. The new joint venture also includes Cobham and the Brown & Root subsidiary of Halliburton, which were formerly members of the EuroTanker team.

EADS, Rolls-Royce, Thales, Cobham, and Brown & Root are equal shareholders in the new AirTanker company.

Raytheon [RTNA/RTNB] and Brown & Root had submitted preliminary bids for the FSTA program in 1999, but they were not invited to submit formal bids last month.

Under the FSTA program, the winning bidder would provide an air-to-air refueling service for the Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) including ownership, management and maintenance of the tanker aircraft. The winner would also provide training facilities and some personnel.

The FSTA aircraft would replace the RAF's current tanker fleet of 24 VC.10 aircraft originally built by then-Vickers of Britain and nine L-1011 aircraft by then-Lockheed.

The AirTanker team will bid an Airbus aircraft using Rolls-Royce Trent engines, the companies said. Airbus options include the A310 and A330, the Ministry of Defence said last year. The Rolls-Royce engine is currently used in the A330, as well as the A340, and has been picked for the future A380.

No specific Airbus airframe has yet been selected, EADS, Rolls-Royce, and Thales spokesmen said.

The other remaining competitors, BAE and Serco, could also propose an Airbus aircraft for the FSTA requirement. Boeing's [BA] 767 and MD-11 have also previously been mentioned as possible candidate airframes.

Boeing has been looking to supply a tanker version of its 767 commercial jet equipped with its patented flying boom refueling device for FSTA. Boeing is also looking to bid the 767 for Japan's new tanker requirement (Defense Daily, Jan. 9).

Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, was teamed with France's then-Aerospatiale Matra, now a part of EADS, to propose a modified Airbus jet. However, Raytheon was also teamed with Airbus for the program.

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are continuing to evaluate their options for FSTA, according to company spokesmen.

Aerospatiale Matra merged with the former DaimlerChrysler [DCX] Aerospace and Spain's then-CASA to form EADS. EADS in turn holds an 80 percent share in Airbus.

A final selection of the winning consortium is expected to take place in 2002, with the aircraft entering service as early as 2004.