Airbus picked as preferred bidder

Col. Kim Si-cheol, the spokesman of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), announces the winner of the Air Force’s program to purchase four aerial refueling tankers during a briefing at the defense ministry in Seoul, Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Jun Ji-hye

Europe’s Airbus has been selected as a winner over its U.S. rival Boeing for the Air Force’s 1.4 trillion won ($1.3 billion) project to buy four in-flight refueling tankers, the defense acquisition agency announced Tuesday.

The Defense Acquisition Program Executive Committee at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) made the decision in a meeting presided over by Defense Minister Han Min-koo.

The three candidates were Airbus Defence & Space’s A330 MRTT (Multi Role Tanker Transport); Boeing’s KC-46: and Israel Aerospace Industries’ KC-767 MMTT (Multi Mission Tanker Transport).

“DAPA has conducted a fair and transparent evaluation with a 19-member expert group composed of analysts, professors and lawyers,” DAPA spokesman Col. Kim Si-cheol told a briefing. “Airbus’s A330 MRTT is being used by a number of countries.”

The agency added that depot maintenance of the Airbus model was easier as 33 domestic commercial airlines are currently operating the A330.

The state-run procurement agency said it decided on which maker to give priority to after integrating analyses results, including document examination, operational tests and negotiations.

“We reduced the price to the maximum by utilizing a competition among the companies,” Kim said.

The European aircraft company’s win over the U.S. maker does not happen very often here as the military has tended to put a bigger emphasis on the interoperability with its biggest ally. The South Korean Air Force flies U.S. fighter jets.

This was why some analysts expected Boeing to win the deal although the capacity of the aviation fuel tank of the A330 MRTT is larger than that of KC-46 ― 93.5 tons to 80 tons.

When asked about the interoperability between European aerial tankers and U.S. fighters, DAPA stressed that there would be no problem as the tankers and jets are equipped with Link-16, a military tactical data exchange network, to transmit and receive necessary information with each other.

The project to bring in four aerial tankers by 2019 is designed to improve airborne operations of fighters and was finalized in November 2013.

DAPA received proposal documents from the three overseas aircraft makers in July of last year.

The agency initially planned to decide a winner by the end of last year. But the plan was postponed due to a delay in negotiations and budget problems.

The Air Force expects in-flight refueling tankers to enable its fighter jets to considerably extend their flight time when patrolling Ieodo and Dokdo. The two, which are under South Korea’s jurisdiction, are subject to territorial claims from China and Japan, respectively.

Since 1993, the Air Force has sought to deploy aerial tankers to refuel fighter jets, but the plan has been repeatedly shelved due to budget constraints and shifts in priorities.