Originally Posted by
paulcg77
I'm holding out hope the AF will still order some A330 MRTT's. No reason they can't co-exist given the variety of tanker models currently and previously operated by the US military.
The A330 based tanker has some significant issues as well. It’s wingspan would significantly reduce the number of tails that could be parked in a given amount of ramp. The ice shield on the boom is also so fat that it has not been cleared for USAF F15 variants last I checked (It has been a couple years). Finally, while the number of pallets it can carry is impressive for a strat airlifter, it translates into a higher fuel burn that eats away “instantaneous” far more rapidly than a four engine 135. The real problem is the USAF wrote a bad RFP to begin with. Boeing’s malfeasance is merely a rewarded symptom of a broken system.