Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) wants extra assurance the Air Force is going to give full consideration to the KC-30 tanker being offered by the Northrop Grumman-EADS team, which plans to produce the aircraft at a new plant in Mobile, Ala. Sessions has included a “sense of Congress” amendment (S.A. 2023) to the 2008 defense authorization bill now on the Senate floor that would “discourage actions that would limit the ability of either of the teams seeking the contract for the procurement of the KC-X tanker aircraft from competing in the competition.” Earlier this year, Sessions heralded the Northrop-EADS decision to continue in the KC-X competition, calling it “good news for the warfighter, the taxpayer, and for Alabama and Mobile.”
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
