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Moscow (AFP) March 22, 2010 Russia's state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) said Monday it had no plans to bid for a 35 billion-dollar contract for a new generation of US military aerial tankers. "UAC plans neither to participate in the known tender for the tanker planes nor to create a joint enterprise," the company quoted its head Alexei Fyodorov as saying in a statement. John Kirkland, a US-based attorney, had told several media outlets over the weekend that UAC would announce on Monday a joint venture with a US company to participate in the bidding. UAC's Fyodorov said he was not familiar with Kirkland. Earlier Monday, a UAC spokesman dismissed the media reports as a joke. "I think someone is getting ready in advance for April Fool's day," a UAC spokesman told AFP, adding that only the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport was authorised to make such bids. A Rosoboronexport spokesman, Vyacheslav Davidenko, told AFP he was unaware of any plans by his company to compete with Boeing and, potentially, Airbus parent EADS for the coveted contract. The rumoured bid also did not figure in the talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, Putin's spokesman said. "It was not a topic of the discussion during the meeting," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AFP. "We know nothing about it." Russia's Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, which oversees the country's arms exports, declined immediate comment when contacted by AFP. Russian business daily Kommersant, citing a source at UAC, reported Monday that "unreliable American middlemen" had approached the company with such a proposal, but UAC decided not to participate in the tender. The US Department of Defence is looking for 179 aerial refueling tankers to replace its aging fleet of Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers in a deal worth 35 billion dollars. Many experts think it is unlikely that a Russian firm would participate in the bidding, because of national security concerns and an inability to compete with Boeing and Airbus standards. A source familiar with the situation told AFP that UAC would enter the bidding with a tanker version of its civilian Ilyushin IL-96 aircraft, to be built in Russia and assembled in the US southeastern region.
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US tanker bid war heats up with Airbus, Russia in wingsWashington (AFP) March 19, 2010 The US Air Force tanker bidding contest against Boeing heated up Friday, with Airbus parent EADS mulling a proposal and Russia's state firm UAC gearing up for one next week. EADS opened the door to a bid against US arch-rival Boeing for the 35-billion-dollar aerial refueling tanker contract on signs of Pentagon willingness to extend the May deadline. The European Aeronautic Defence and S ... read more |
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