Bye-Bye For Now, KC-X

Bye-Bye For Now, KC-X: Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to terminate the current KC-X tanker competition and leave it in the hands of the next Administration to decide how to replace the Air Force’s fleet of Eisenhower-era KC-135s, the Pentagon announced Wednesday morning. Based on talks with senior defense and Air Force officials and with Boeing and Northrop Grumman representatives, Gates said it is no longer thought possible to complete the solicitation process and award a contract by January, especially given the “highly charged environment” surrounding the multi-billion-dollar tanker contest. Rather than hand over “an incomplete and possibly contested process,” 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” for the new tanker, he said. In making this decision, Gates said DOD had determined that the KC-135 fleet “can be adequately maintained” to satisfy Air Force missions in the near term. Budget adjustments will be made in Fiscal 2009 and beyond “to maintain the KC-135 at high mission capable rates,” according to the announcement. But funding for the KC-X program will remain for the period from Fiscal 2010 to Fiscal 2015 in the budget presently under review.

9/10/2008

Verbatim

No Dog, Just Concern
"You know it concerns me that we keep hearing, 'Well this is something that the military doesn't want. They didn't ask for,' and all that. Then I go over there [Southwest Asia theater], and that's not their attitude at all. They have needs over there. Our lift capacity is in dire straights. … Now on the F-22—just yesterday we read about the T-50 … a fifth generation [fighter] that the Russians have. … I'm concerned about this. And I guess, you know, if we're down to 187 F-22s, and I think out of that only—what 120 are actually combat ready and used for combat. … I look at our committee—the Senate Armed Services Committee—and on these two vehicles I mentioned—the F-22 and the C-17—in Oklahoma. I don't have a dog in that fight. We don't have any parochial interest there. But it's the capability that we're going to need."
—Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), speaking during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Fiscal 2011 defense budget, Feb. 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Taming Expectations
"Every QDR disappoints those who look for radical reallocation of resources. The current fiscal environment is compounding that trend."
—Jim Thomas, vice president for studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefing reporters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2010.