Tanker may break ceiling $500M

Boeing may exceed by $500 million the cost ceiling on its contract for Air Force refueling tankers. That's $200 million more than previous estimates. Boeing, developing the tanker from its 767, absorbs the cost over the contract's $4.8 billion ceiling. Government officials in June told Bloomberg News that Boeing was projected to exceed the ceiling by $300 million. The new estimate is in the Selected Acquisition Report, the Pentagon’s first official cost review for the 179-aircraft program. (Source: Bloomberg via Washington Post, 11/27/11) Gulf Coast note: Boeing won the contract over EADS, who planned to assemble the planes in Mobile, Ala.