Days after the formal comment period on the Air Force’s KC-X tanker draft request for proposals closed, Northrop Grumman officials publicly expressed their displeasure with the current format of the competition during a press conference Wednesday in Washington D.C. They said they had voiced their concerns to the Air Force during this initial feedback phase. They also intimated that the company reserved the right to withdraw from the contest if key concerns about proprietary information from the last competition are not resolved. The rebooted KC-X is “fundamentally different” than the requirements worked out in the last competition, said Mitch Waldman, Northrop’s vice president of business development for advanced aerospace programs and technology. Continue
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.