UAC Denies U.S. Air Force Bid Intent

Government officials and the United Aircraft Corporation denied on Monday that the state-run holding planned to bid for a $50 billion contract to replace the U.S. Air Force's fleet of air tankers, competing with Boeing and Europe's EADS.

John Kirkland, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, had told various news media over the weekend that UAC would announce a joint venture Monday with a U.S. defense contractor to enter the bidding for the tanker deal.

UAC denied that it had held any talks on bidding for the contract. "We have not been holding, are not holding and are not planning to hold such talks," a UAC official said.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, chairman of the UAC board, dismissed reports of an agreement to bid. "It's a canard," Ivanov said, RIA-Novosti reported.

Separately, UAC vice president Alexander Tulyakov said the lawyer did not work for the company. "John Kirkland is not a UAC representative and we have had no communications with him [about the tender]," he said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not discuss any Russian role in the contract when they met Friday, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "It was not a topic at the talks."

The U.S. Air Force has been trying for nearly a decade to replace its fleet of Boeing-built KC-135 tanker aircraft, which are close to 50 years old.

EADS, parent company of Airbus, won a deal in 2008 to build an initial 179 tankers, only to have it canceled after auditors intervened. The Pentagon said last week that EADS had expressed possible interest in continuing to compete for the contract.

Kirkland quoted Alexander Shishkin, who he said worked for the Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation, as saying the U.S.-Russian joint venture being formed would be announced at UAC headquarters on Monday morning.

But Shishkin, contacted on Monday, said he could not say anything. He would not even confirm that he worked for the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation. "I cannot say anything until the bosses decide something," he said.

UAC's Tulyakov said Russia was selling arms abroad only via state arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport. "We have held no discussions with them [about the tender]," he added.

An official at the service said nobody named Alexander Shishkin was listed as working there.

Kirkland had said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed a UAC bid for the tanker contract at a meeting with Clinton. The Foreign Ministry declined comment Monday.

Neither Russian nor U.S. officials mentioned at the time any discussions about a tanker bid. Clinton held a bilateral meeting with Lavrov on Thursday and met President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin on Friday separately.

Kirkland had said the Russian bid would be based on a version of UAC's Il-96 aircraft, which he said would be called the Il-98.

"There are some internal discussions within the UAC, but very preliminary ones, about the production of an air tanker based on the Il-96. But to talk about Russian air tankers refueling U.S. military planes — it is from the realms of fantasy," said a UAC source, who asked not to be named.

Fewer than 30 Il-96 aircraft have been produced, and the plane is considered technically inferior to Western rivals. Russian media reported last year that production of the passenger variant had been canceled, though a cargo version is still in limited production.

Russian media have made no mention of a new version of the Il-96 called the Il-98.