Reacting to the House’s May 27 vote making World Trade Organization rulings a factor in the Air Force’s KC-X tanker competition, EADS North America reiterated its stance that the Pentagon “should be allowed to run the fair and open competition” to which it has committed. “We leave it to the Department to comment on the extent to which this or any legislation impacts that objective,” EADS spokesman James Darcy told the Daily Report. He added that the company remains committed “to competing on the merits” if its tanker. Meanwhile, Boeing hailed the House’s vote, calling such measures “entirely appropriate” to ensure “a fair competition on a level playing field” in the face of EADS’ Airbus receiving improper aircraft subsidies. Such steps, Boeing contends, will prevent the US defense industrial base from “suffering the same fate” (i.e., thousands of lost jobs) as the US commercial aircraft industry. (See Requirements Creep above) (Boeing statement)
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.