Although the Air Force originally intended the KC-X tanker competition to be a contest between off-the-shelf aircraft designs—to reduce risk and accelerate fielding—Boeing’s NewGen Tanker met the bill, even though it hasn’t flown yet, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. “The bottom line is, I don’t think that we necessarily mandated a machine that was flying in every respect,” Schwartz told the Daily Report Feb. 25 during an interview. He added, “Clearly, the [Boeing] 767 is an established platform, as is the [Airbus] A330.” Schwartz said both platforms “passed each of the requirements” that were embedded in the KC-X request for proposal, and “both platforms qualified.” So the Air Force based its choice on “other factors, including mission capability [and] lifecycle costs,” he said.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
