USAF buys Airbus Tanker

Yesterday, the Air Force awarded the new jet tanker contract to Airbus. USAF will buy 197 A-330 Airbuses fitted with fuel tanks and a boom. Boeing was the only competitor, offering 767's for the tanker role. Big surprise to have a major aircraft program go to a foreign company. Details of the bids, like cost per aircraft, and overhead costs are not available to me yet. Perhaps Aviation Week will have something in next week's issue.
The current USAF tanker is the KC-135, a windowless version of the old Boeing 707, or perhaps the 707 was a KC-135 with windows. The Air Force bought 600 of the KC-135's in the 1950's and 1960's. Winning the KC-135 job fifty years ago had a lot to do with Boeing becoming the only successful maker of jetliners. The 707 and the KC-135 were very similar and were developed at the same time. Surely the Air Force work on the sister KC-135 made it easier to build the 707. The 707 and it's descendants account for Boeing's success in the jet liner business since 1957. Douglas, Convair, and Lockheed all offered jet liners back then, but Boeing's planes drove them all off the market. Since the first USAF tanker contract was so important to Boeing, it is reasonable to think the second USAF jet tanker contract might be just as important to Airbus.
Giving such a massive defense contract to a foreign company is unprecedented, up til now the US armed forces bought everything from rifles to aircraft carriers from American companies. The contract award is bound to be challenged in Congress and in the courts. It will be interesting to see if the award sticks. Also how long it takes to work thru the various challenges. If the courts work as poorly as they have on the Exxon Valdez case, the Air Force may not see new tankers until 2030. New tankers are needed, the KC-135 fleet is fifty years old. Well built as they were, fifty years is a helova long time to keep flying an aircraft. They have to be worn out by now.