Air Force acquisition leader Sue Payton told reporter Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News that the service wants to get a fixed price for 80 aircraft out of a planned initial buy of 179 for its KC-X tanker replacement program. And, Payton says the Air Force is taking a very deliberate, document-every-step approach to ensure it can show the losing contractor “exactly why they lost.” Earlier this month the Air Force revealed to Congress that the contract award probably would not be made until late December. The service plans subsequent buys of new tankers, in two more increments spanning a 40-year replacement plan—there’s no money to work more quickly. (Bloomberg article via Seattle Post-Intelligencer.)
A new Navy missile could fill a range gap that the U.S. Air Force needs for its fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at…