Boeing is on the record that if the Air Force sets additional requirements to presage a best-value solution for its KC-X tanker replacement program, set to restart in the new year, it likely would face a challenge. Reuters news service reports that Boeing chief executive officer James Albaugh said Wednesday that if the service doesn’t “take a very pragmatic view” by limiting requirements and choosing the lowest cost solution, the KC-X program would be “more susceptible to protest.” On the other hand, Boeing’s competitor for the KC-X, Northrop Grumman advocates the opposite, telling the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington earlier this week that a “low-ball” solution would not serve the US military well, reports Reuters. Ronald Sugar, Northrop CEO, urged a “a rapid restart of the program … and that the competition will be conducted as a best value competition very much as the F-22 and the F-35 were conducted … as opposed to just simply a low-ball bid.” Northrop won the original KC-X competition, but Boeing successfully protested. The difficulty of producing a clean result prompted Defense Secretary Robert Gates in September to defer the competition for the next Administration. Of course, now he is to be part of the next Administration.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…