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
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.