Well, the Air Force has released a new RFP, and already a Congressman from Boeing is whining, “Not Fair.”

You can look at the proposals (warning big PDFs) here and here

The good folks at Flight International have read it, and they note 3 major changes:

1. Official credit for having fuel offload capacity in excess of the RFP minimums.
2. Separating maintenance and fuel costs from acquisition, and giving more import to acquisition costs in the evaluation process.
3. Extending the lifecycle period from 25 years to 40 years.

The first should favor Airbus, the second should too, because it pretty much locks out the Boeing 777, because it would require yet more development and have a higher acquisition cost.

The third might favor Boeing, because being a smaller plane, the 767 consumes less fuel, though it would likely be a wash on a per pound of fuel offloaded basis.

I still think that the Airbus offering brings a lot more to the table, but I thought that before the first award, and did not expect them to get it, because of Boeing’s political pull.

Break out the popcorn.