Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) doesn’t want EADS involved in the KC-X tanker contract, he said Thursday. “I hope they don’t bid,” the newly minted chair of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee told reporters following an Aerospace Industries Association event in the Capitol Building. Dicks said the Air Force’s requirements for a new tanker clearly indicate a need for a “smaller airplane” than the A330 derivative Airbus might propose. The A330, he said, is “too big,” and with rising fuel costs, will be “too expensive to operate.” Boeing, the only confirmed bidder for the tanker, has a major production facility in Washington state.
The Pentagon is counting on Congress to navigate a legislative tightrope and pass a party-line bill to fund nearly a quarter of its $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, including billions of dollars for top priorities like Golden Dome, the F-35, munitions, and unmanned systems. Experts and lawmakers from…