Drama 
and industry protests have returned to the Air Force’s KC-X tanker competition as USAF is considering just two bids—not three as originally thought. This comes after the revelation that southern California-based US Aerospace missed the filing deadline on July 9 by just five minutes—due to what it claims were errors on the Air Force’s part. Or perhaps it was even some lingering Cold War bias. US Aerospace is partnered with Ukrainian aerospace giant Antonov to compete for KC-X, offering the Antonov AN-112-KC tanker. After learning in late July that its bid is ineligible, US Aerospace on Aug. 2 lodged a protest with the Government Accountability Office. “This is the greatest country in the world, but we have a lot of people that are different in their feelings at the Pentagon and some of those people don’t understand that the Cold War is over,” Charles Arnold, senior advisor to US Aerospace’s board of directors, told the Daily Report Thursday. He added, “They are not trying to give us a fair shake and we deserve it.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
