U.K.'s Marshall to Supply Fuel Tanks for USAF KC-46A

By ANDREW CHUTER Published: 3 May 2011 13:23

LONDON - British company Marshall Aerospace has secured an order to supply body fuel tanks to boost the performance of the Boeing 767, selected by the U.S. Air Force to become its new KC-46A in-flight refueling tanker.

European industry may have missed out on the big prize when EADS failed to win the huge KC-46A contract, but U.K. companies aligned with the 767 bid have started to see their position on the Boeing team turn into firm contracts.

Marshall Aerospace announced it has been awarded a deal to design and supply body fuel tanks for the 767-derived tanker to increase flight range and refueling capability.

Each aircraft will carry four of the tanks. Initially, the Marshall deal covers a batch of tanks destined to be fitted to development aircraft, but the Cambridge-based company said in a statement that it expects production orders will follow from the USAF for more than 650 tanks over a 15-year period.

The value of the program is expected to exceed 100 million pounds ($165 million) over the duration of the program, and Marshall said it expects that number to rise on the back of export prospects for the tanker.

Boeing has previously awarded Marshall body fuel tank work on aircraft such as the P-8 Poseidon, the 777 and the 747.

Earlier this year, Boeing's 767 beat out a bid by its European rival, which offered a variant of the Airbus A330 airliner, to supply 179 KC-46A tankers to the USAF.

In February, British company Cobham announced it was to supply the hose and drogue refueling systems for the KC-46A. Most of that work will be conducted at a new facility in Davenport, Iowa.

Cobham was in a win-win situation; its market-leading refueling systems were also specified for the Airbus plane.

A Cobham spokesman in the U.K. said he expected the total amount of work generated for the company by the tanker order would be about $1 billion over the life of the program. That work would be dominated by supply and support of the refueling systems, he said.

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