On a trip to MacDill AFB, Fla., Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked at a Town Hall meeting to say when the Air Force would get a replacement for its Eisenhower-era aerial tankers. The “short answer,” he said, is, “I don’t know.” He termed that admission “a confession,” quipping, “Confession is good for the soul.” He went on to tell the Town Hall audience that the Pentagon had been “wrestling with this for four or five years. My personal view is that we’re getting closer … and a recommendation will be made to Congress.”
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.