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.”
Army Building Up New Space Operations Branch
Oct. 15, 2026
The Army has long been dependent on space capabilities to navigate terrain, communicate in hard-to-reach areas, and identify and strike targets. Now, the service wants to deepen its space operations expertise and is making plans to expand its own cadre of operators in the coming years.