New refueling jets to be fully loaded with high-tech equipment

After three attempts to replace its aging refueling tankers, the Air Force kicked off a new contract on Friday, calling for a fleet of 179 carriers that will have sophisticated Internet-based communications on board.

The service's draft request for proposals for the $35 billion tanker program includes 373 requirements, including a provision for aircraft systems that can operate on current Internet standards and the new IPv6 protocol, which will provide more Internet addresses, better security and increased automation by connecting equipment and appliances via the Web.

Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., the two companies competing for the contract, will be required to provide systems that will allow the crew to browse the Web on unclassified and classified Defense Department networks, and send classified and unclassified e-mail.

The Air Force also mandated systems on the new tanker to support texting and to receive and transmit a variety of mission information such as threat data, aircraft position and refueling track information.

The information will be transmitted over military and civilian communications satellites and military radio systems and frequencies. The Air Force also wants the tankers equipped with a satellite telephone system capable of operating on classified networks.

The service asked Boeing and Northrup Grumman to equip the new tankers with terrestrial- and satellite-based navigation systems, including an enhanced differential GPS system for landing and the Federal Aviation Administration's new GPS-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system.

The draft request also calls for using the new tanker for evacuation missions and mandated the installation of two workstations in the cargo bay, where medics can hook laptop computers into the aircrafts' communications systems.

Bernie Skoch, a consultant with Suss Consulting Inc., said it is essential for new aircraft to have Internet connectivity and added, "it did not make sense to field a new system that was not IPv6 compliant."

Skoch said the tankers' information systems also will allow it to be used as a communications relay aircraft to air and ground forces during battle.

The tanker competition the Air Force kicked off today marks the service's third attempt to acquire a tanker fleet to replace its aging KC-135 tankers, based on Boeing 707s, the newest of which entered service in 1964. The Air Force awarded Boeing a contract in 2002 to lease 100 767 tankers, but that plan was derailed by allegations of corruption in the procurement process.

In January 2006, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld canceled the Boeing tanker lease as a cost-cutting measure. The Air Force issued a new tanker contact proposal in January 2007, and in February 2008 awarded a $40 billion contract to a partnership of Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which supplied its Airbus 330 airframe for the tanker.

Boeing, which once again offered its 767 tanker, protested the award, and the Government Accountability Office upheld the protest in June 2008. GAO upheld Boeing's protest against the tanker award to Northrop Grumman on the grounds the award was based on criteria it deemed too subjective.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates initially decided to recompete the contract in July 2008, but then canceled it in September 2008.

Yesterday, in a press briefing on the new tanker competition, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said the Pentagon will avoid that problem in the new competition. "We will be crystal clear about what we want and what the bidders need to do to win," he said.