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Welcome Back: The Air Force will be the source-selection authority in the KC-X tanker contest, which is set to restart shortly, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday in his remarks at AFA's Air & Space Conference. His announcement, which returns to the Air Force the final say in deciding upon the new tanker design that will replace its Eisenhower-era KC-135s, was greeted with a round of applause. "I have confidence that the KC-X selection authority is in good hands with the service's leadership team," Gates said. Although the Air Force will now be the lead again, Gates said OSD "will continue to have a robust oversight." Continue

—Michael C. Sirak

9/16/2009

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.