Not good news. Saw this just now:

Pentagon cancels tanker competition: Gates

The Pentagon has cancelled a 35 billion dollar competition for a new air refueling tanker, leaving the politically charged decision to a new administration, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday.

"It is my judgement that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment," Gates said in a statement.

"The resulting 'cooling off' period will allow the next administration to review objectively the military requirements and craft a new acquisition strategy for the KC-X," he said.

The decision was a blow to Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS, which won a Pentagon contract to build a new air refueling tanker only to have it successfully challenged by rival Boeing.

Boeing had insisted that it needed at least six more months to respond to a revised request for proposal.

Gates said the seven year process to find a replacement for its ageing fleet of KC-135 tankers had become "enormously complex and emotional - in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense."

The Pentagon said Gates made the decision to terminate the competition in consultation with the air force, and said the current KC-135 fleet can be adequately maintained to satisfy air force missions in the near future.

"Rather than hand the next administration an incomplete and possibly contested process, Secretary Gates decided that the best course of action is to provide the next administration with full flexibility regarding the requirements, evaluation criteria and the appropriate allocation of defense budget to this mission," the statement said.

 

Not good news for whom? Boeing, Northrop, the Air Force? This thing has been going on for years and has more missteps than the F-22 and JSF programs combined. This is probably the one honest to goodness decision int this tanker fiasco that is in the best interest of the country.

 

Sounds great, **** the French!

 

And the buck gets passed along....

 

Don't see why the USAF just doesn't make both sides happy and order equal amounts of each the A330 and B767. That is probably the most civil and nonpolitical way of doing things.

 

You may well be right about all that. I meant not good news for the tanker flyers. This decision will push back the last flight date of the 135 for years. At some point they will have to get something new.

WW

 

Its terrible news. The AF is trying to be so politcally correct they are cutting off their nose to spite their face. The leadership should have made a decision and went with it...at least us warfighters would benefit.

 

Or they can do it the right way, without sending people to jail or breaking regulations/laws, and pick the correct and most capable aircraft. It is the military after all, is it impossible for them to man up?

If the future of the USAF dictated we would be best served by 2 models of tankers (there are benefits to a small and large tanker system - similar to the -135 and -10 setup) than so be it. But to do it because you are incapable of running a legal acquisition process and that is what makes everyone happy is BS.

 

One of the more eloquent and factually sound arguments posted on this forum.

 

Rather than start a new thread, I dug up one of the older ones with the fewest posts.

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