Here's the latest twist in the Air Force tanker saga: The Russians are coming.
Russia's government-owned aerospace company will announce Monday it is competing against Boeing for the $40 billion refueling-tanker contract, a Los Angeles attorney for the company said Friday.
United Aircraft of Moscow plans to unveil a U.S. partner and offer a modified version of its Ilyushin Il-96 wide-body plane, said John Kirkland, a Los Angeles lawyer representing the group.
The still-unidentified partner, "a U.S. public company and existing defense contractor," would assemble the planes in the U.S., he said. The Russian interest in the tanker bid was first reported Friday by The Wall Street Journal.
United Aircraft was formed under the authority of then-President Vladimir Putin in 2006 to combine the most famous names in Russian aviation: Sukhoi, Tupolev, Ilyushin, MiG.
Kirkland acknowledged it faces "significant hurdles ... there are obvious security issues, there are sanctions and restrictions on buying things from Russia."
He insisted, however, that "the Il-96 meets every single one of the final RFP (request for proposal) requirements, and it comes in at a lower price (than Boeing), so if it's a fair competition, we win."
By: Brant
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