Air Force Secretary Wynne told defense reporters Tuesday that he expects the draft request for proposals for the next aerial tanker to be out by the end of the month. Further revisions are beating a dead horse, he said. And, in his view, there are only two qualified bidders: Boeing and the Northrop Grumman/EADS team. Wynne indicated that USAF isn’t interested in farming out some of the work to a private contractor, such as Omega Air, which has said it wants to provide tanking services to meet part of the requirement. However, Wynne does not believe a company should have to start learning how to do night tanking on the first day of a war.
As the Air Force readied for its June 21-22 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the service was also putting its Agile Combat Employment strategy into action, dispersing combat aircraft and Airmen from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in preparation for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack. Some defense experts say…
