Five state governors joined forces to send a letter last week to President Bush urging him to consider the beneficial affect a KC-30 tanker production facility in Mobile, Ala., would have on a region hard hit by recent natural disasters. George Talbot of the Press-Register reports that governors of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia sent Bush a two-page letter asking him to ensure the Air Force is “unbiased, fair, and open” in its award of the KC-X tanker replacement program contract. They also noted the “breadth, depth, and significance of the aerospace industry of the Pacific Northwest” and wrote, “This tanker aircraft procurement provides our Southern region with a rare opportunity to create a new, integrated and sweeping aerospace center of excellence with a broad economic impact.”
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.