EADS North America announced Monday that the Air Force has debriefed it on the service’s KC-X tanker decision. Armed with this new knowledge, it now rests with the company to decide whether to appeal the Air Force’s tanker contract award to Boeing, or to allow the decision to stand. “The EADS North America team has met with the Air Force, received a debriefing, and is evaluating the information presented to us,” said Guy Hicks, EADS North America spokesman. He added, “Our objective has always been that the US warfighter receive the most capable tanker, following a fair and transparent competition. That remains our position today.” Last week, the Air Force selected Boeing’s 767-based NewGen Tanker over EADS’ A330-based KC-45 to replace the service’s oldest KC-135s. Explaining the decision last week, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said service evaluators judged that Boeing’s tanker would be more than 1 percent lower in price than EADS’. Further, Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn called Boeing “a clear winner.”
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…