Northrop Grumman has decided to stay the course for the Air Force’s KC-X tanker replacement program. In a statement issued Thursday, Northrop’s Scott Seymour, president of the Integrated Systems sector, said: After carefully studying the final language in the Air Force’s KC-X request for proposals, we and our team members have determined that the Northrop Grumman KC-30 is a very competitive offering that fully supports the Air Force’s tanker mission.” There has been great concern, especially among lawmakers, that the Northrop-EADS team would drop out of the competition, leaving only Boeing.
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.