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For Boeing to have entered the 777 means that they would've had to design a whole new tanker from scratch. The 767 tanker is already designed and built for Japan and Italy. That would've delayed the process and added to the cost significantly. Airbus was already prepared to low-ball the price just to have some hope of winning this thing.
The 787 hasn't even flown yet, so Boeing really couldn't offer that either. Composite or not, all delivery slots for that plane are taken until 2016. Boeing has no capacity to meet that kind of need with this airplane.
The fact of the matter is that Boeing got caught in a bad situation. They didn't have what the customer wanted. This isn't about Boeing just wanting to keep the 767 line open, as Boeing already has a significant backlog of orders, this is what they had to offer the USAF at the time.
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I want what I do not have.
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