Air Force acquisition leader Sue Payton told reporter Tony Capaccio of Bloomberg News that the service wants to get a fixed price for 80 aircraft out of a planned initial buy of 179 for its KC-X tanker replacement program. And, Payton says the Air Force is taking a very deliberate, document-every-step approach to ensure it can show the losing contractor “exactly why they lost.” Earlier this month the Air Force revealed to Congress that the contract award probably would not be made until late December. The service plans subsequent buys of new tankers, in two more increments spanning a 40-year replacement plan—there’s no money to work more quickly. (Bloomberg article via Seattle Post-Intelligencer.)
The Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces heard testimony from the Defense Department’s top missile defense leaders and demanded to know why the Missile Defense Agency's proposed $9.6 billion fiscal 2023 budget will not yield more reliable defense against hypersonic weapons already being fielded by adversaries, including Russia on…