“We’re close” to launching a new tanker competition, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told reporters Monday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. He said the new draft for proposals would be out “in a couple of weeks,” with the announcement coming not from Donley but from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who will also explain the rules of the new contest. And, Donley said he sees nothing in the recent World Trade Organization ruling that would alter the course of the tanker contest. “We see no immediate impact,” he said, since there are still “months” of process and potential appeals remaining to play out over the WTO ruling.
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed the Army War College last week, he mentioned changes to the way the military buys software alongside Golden Dome and the F-47 as key to his goal of “rebuilding the military.” And Lt. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey, who heads the Air Force’s most consequential…