Cyber Warfare: Boeing and Northrop Grumman are at it in full force. The war of words between the two over the Air Force’s KC-X tanker award to Northrop Grumman Feb. 29 has elevated into a battle for cyber supremacy. In addition to each company’s respective Web site at which a myriad of facts and details is available on their respective tankers, each has established dedicated sites that offer more biting and opinionated insights. Boeing’s “Tanker Facts” blog allows its senior officials involved with the KC-767, which lost out to Northrop Grumman’s KC-30, to post comments on the company’s ongoing legal protest of the Air Force’s decision, counter what Northrop Grumman is saying publicly, and extol the virtues of the KC-767. Conversely Northrop Grumman’s “America’s New Tanker” Web site refutes Boeing’s attacks on the KC-30 (now designated the KC-45A) and on the Air Force’s evaluation process, and champions the company’s tanker and its manufacturing plan, which is centered around an assembly hub in Mobile, Ala., with EADS, parent of Airbus.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.