Boeing is stepping up its effort to secure the contract for the Air Force’s next aerial refueling aircraft. Roxana Tiron of The Hill reports that Boeing plans to send out a summer barrage of press releases to the “top 18 states with high stakes in the tanker program.” The focus would be on the 44,000 US jobs the company now says a program to build 179 new tankers, dubbed KC-X, would support. Both Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS have their Congressional supporters. The KC-X is now USAF’s top acquisition priority, and the program would grow beyond the initial buy.
Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost—a trailblazer and one of the first 10 women to reach a four-star rank across the U.S. military—retired and passed control of U.S. Transportation Command to Air Force Gen. Randall Reed on Oct. 4, finishing an eventful tenure at TRANSCOM.