Boeing expects the Air Force to move ahead with an alternative program to develop a Family of Advanced Beyond-Line-of-Sight Terminals that would run in parallel to the company’s FAB-T development, said Roger Krone, the company’s president of networking and space programs, Tuesday. “We clearly understand … that our performance has not been outstanding,” Krone told reporters in Arlington, Va. Earlier this year, the Air Force disclosed its intent to terminate Boeing’s FAB-T contract because the company has yet to produce a working terminal. However, Boeing submitted an enticing firm-fixed priced proposal to keep its work going; service officials have been evaluating it. Krone said Boeing has yet to receive word in writing that its FAB-T work will continue, but negotiations are under way. “We are in this position because we don’t have a terminal done that we can offer to the customer and this will put a competitor in the mix,” acknowledged Krone. He added, “We have about a year-and-a-half to perform and anywhere through this process, the Air Force has options to continue both the programs, to stop one, to go with the other. . . . They have done a very good job of creating leverage.”
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.