Northrop Grumman Wins KC-X Contest:

Northrop Grumman Wins KC-X Contest: T

he wait is over. The team of Northrop Grumman/EADS has triumphed over Boeing in the Air Force’s KC-X tanker contest, senior USAF officials announced late Friday, ending an intensive competition and filling USAF’s top procurement priority. The transatlantic consortium won a $1.5 billion contract for the system development and demonstration phase of the KC-X program that will yield up to 179 new tanker aircraft, recently designated KC-45As, under work estimated to be worth about $35 billion over the next 15 years or so. The new tanker model is Northrop Grumman’s KC-30 design, which features the Airbus A330 airframe. It will replace USAF’s oldest Eisenhower-era KC-135s. The SDD phase includes the manufacture of four test aircraft. The new contract also includes five production options, together worth $10.6 billion, for 64 airplanes, the Air Force said Feb. 29. Boeing bid the KC-767. “Today's announcement is the culmination of years of tireless work and attention to detail by our acquisition professionals and source selection team, who have been committed to maintaining integrity, providing transparency, and promoting a fair competition for this critical aircraft program,” Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said a USAF statement. The Air Force said it could not provide additional information on the proposals and the Northrop Grumman contract at this time until both industry teams have had the chance to be debriefed. Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale said in a statement: “Obviously we are very disappointed with this outcome. We believe that we offered the Air Force the best value and lowest risk tanker for its mission.” He said the company is awaiting the debrief. There has been speculation that a protest by the loser is inevitable since the stakes in the KC-X program were so high: The winner may eventually have the inside track on building hundreds of more tankers to replace some 500 KC-135s in the fleet. “Once we have reviewed the details behind the award, we will make a decision concerning our possible options, keeping in mind at all times the impact to the warfighter and our nation,” Barksdale said.

3/3/2008

Verbatim

Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.