Boeing presented reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Monday with its own “spider chart” showing how its 777 tanker concept would be superior to Northrop Grumman’s KC-30 offering. Rick Lemaster, Boeing’s KC-X tanker program manager, displayed a chart with interconnected lines and circular patterns like a spider’s intricate web similar to the so-called Northrop spider chart made famous during the last round of the tanker competition. According to Boeing, the KC-777 has greater fuel offload capability, cargo pallet capacity, passenger carriage, and patient carrying capacity than the KC-30. Lemaster said the KC-777 tanker would offer “significant more capability” than the KC-30 even though the two designs are roughly the same size. Boeing is waiting on DOD to issue the requirements for the restarted KC-X contest before committing to bidding a 777-based tanker versus competing its smaller 767 tanker model (see below). (Boeing briefing charts.)
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.