Reuters news service reports that Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said last week, after Northrop Grumman officials said the company could pull out of the latest effort to select a KC-X tanker because it deemed the contest unfair, that he would “find that extraordinarily hard to believe.” He continued, saying the “extremely lucrative” nature of the KC-X program would necessarily generate a “healthy competition.” The Air Force planned to issue a final request for proposals soon, but both Boeing and Northrop have submitted numerous questions and concerns over the draft RFP.
As Lockheed Martin prepares to release the first F-35 Block 4 software updates this summer, the company and the Joint Program Office are already well into analyses that will decide what will comprise Block 5 and later upgrades, Lockheed’s F-35 program manager said. For now though, some of the new…