The Northrop Grumman-EADS North America team may change its plan to offer the Air Force a modified Airbus A330-200 for the KC-X tanker should it win the competition. Instead, Flight International reports that the team might substitute the freighter version, the A330-200F now that it has a “solid customer base” and is more fully developed, meaning the price would come down. The team’s proposal called for adding a cargo door and localized strengthening to the basic passenger A330-200, but the F model might interest USAF more since it starts out as a freighter.
The Pentagon’s cost estimate for the Iran War has risen to $37.5 billion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional committee July 21—and without emergency supplemental funding, the military will have to “curtail” training to cover those costs, he added.