Boeing Seeks Revised Schedule for U.S. Aerial Tanker

Boeing Co. is revising its master schedule for developing the new U.S. Air Force aerial tanker, adding to uncertainty about a plane that already has run up an estimated $1 billion in excess costs for the contractor.

The Air Force “has been continually monitoring” Boeing’s “progress on their internal schedules, and as we get” the contractor’s proposed revised time line “we will continue to assess the milestones,” Ed Gulick, a spokesman for the service said in an e-mailed statement.

Boeing won the tanker work in February 2011 when it beat Paris-based European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. for the initial contract to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of KC-135 Stratotankers, which first flew in 1956, to refuel warplanes and transports in mid-air.

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