Boeing’s tanker spokesman has denied a press report that the company may not submit a bid in the Air Force’s KC-X tanker contest out of concern that it could not prevail against an unfairly subsidized EADS or might not make a profit under the Pentagon’s fixed-price tanker contract. “We definitely intend to bid for what we consider an honor, which is to replace the Air Force’s KC-135 fleet,” Bill Barskdale told the Seattle Post Intelligencer. His comments came after a press report surfaced May 14 claiming that Boeing executives were debating whether to submit a proposal, given those challenges. Meanwhile, Sean O’Keefe, head of North American operations for rival EADS, said his company doesn’t need a major US-based partner to make its KC-X bid viable. “We are completely satisfied with the team we have,” he said, Bloomberg news wire service reported May 14. (Post Intelligencer report)
The stand-up of the Space Force, and now its early overhaul and the creation of a new Space Systems Command, are all about resilience: Ensuring that space capabilities, which the whole country relies on, could survive a concerted attack by a near-peer adversary. As part of that drive, a new…