“There’s no question about it” the KC-X tanker request for proposals “is very much about replacing the KC-135; that is definitionally a different airplane than the one we’re offering,” EADS North America CEO Sean O’Keefe said Tuesday at a press conference announcing the company’s intention to seek the contract. However, noting that the RFP simply requires “pass/fail” on 372 criteria, he emphasized that the KC-45 will pass “all 372, and that becomes a distinct advantage.” He said USAF and the Pentagon have made clear “here are the criteria you need to pass,” so the process should “yield an answer without a lot of subjective judgments.” Ralph Crosby, EADS North America chairman, said that at that point “the key discriminator is price.” O’Keefe also noted his company is a US entity that has created a structure to handle the 30 or so classified requirements to ensure they aren’t shared overseas.
The Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is behind schedule and may significantly overrun its expected cost, which could partially explain why the service is reviving the hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid-Response Weapon.