The Air Force’s long-awaited—and long-delayed—tanker analysis of alternatives is set to be released around Dec. 16. However, it is likely to be a slim document. The RAND study includes proprietary information from Boeing, Airbus, and other companies that cannot be released, so chances are the public version will amount to little more than an executive summary. Word is that the AOA also does not identify an optimum solution—but a range of choices and costs.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…