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Not Chump Change
Not Chump Change: Splitting the work to suppl y new aerial tankers between Boeing and Northrop Grumman would likely increase the Air Force’s developmental costs by “somewhere around $7 billion to $14 billion” in just over the next five years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters April 14 at Ft. Rucker, Ala., during a tour of each service’s war college. He has steadfastly opposed a split buy, saying that those numbers should provide fuel to support a “clean competition” to choose a winner from among the two aerospace giants. He said he’s included money in the Fiscal 2010 budget that will allow the KC-X tanker recapitalization program to commence a fresh competition this summer. “My hope is that we can get on with this, award the contract perhaps early next year, next summer, in 2010, and then get on with building these tankers,” he said. Gates also mentioned that he would share the newly tweaked KC-X requirements “with interested parties, particularly the Congressional delegations of the states that have an interest in this, get their input, and then make our decision about going forward.” (Full transcript)
4/16/2009
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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. |
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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.
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