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Ear to the Ground

$40 Billion Tanker Contract Grounded

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Posted on Sep 10, 2008
KC-45/30
Northrop Grumman

The KC-X tanker deal has been mired in controversy over bidding conflicts, bias allegations and imperial endeavors.

Unnecessary and extraordinarily expensive, the once-green-lit controversial KC-X midair refueling tanker program has stalled, according to the Pentagon. Any movement on the $40 billion contract to purchase new Air Force tankers will have to wait for the next U.S. administration, a clear sign that military-industrial complex spending is an institutional, rather than administrative, problem.

For a full discussion on this tanker deal and other military-industrial complex issues, check out Robert Scheer’s new book, ”The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.”


The Washington Post:

The Pentagon said it plans to push back the decision to award a $40 billion contract to build new aerial refueling tankers until the next administration—a move that is a significant shift from its earlier decision to move at lightning speed to pick a new winner by the end of the year.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he and other Pentagon officials realized the award could not be made by the end of the year as he had previously wanted. “Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional—in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense,” Gates said in his opening statement this morning before the House Armed Services Committee. “It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment.”

He said having a “cooling-off period will allow the next administration to review objectively the military requirements and craft a new acquisition strategy for the KC-X.”

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By Folktruther, September 17 at 3:51 pm #

Apparently the military or the companies send out trolls to push these kind of hundred billion dollar obscenities.  This will probably increase as the US increasingly becomes a police state.  We will get the American Voice Of Truth straight from the Pentagon.

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By voice of truth, September 11 at 9:19 am #

Alright, demilitarization is also one step towards supplication to those in the world who would much rather kill Americans!  Yes, let’s do that.

This post is not a diatribe on the build up or dismantleing of the military, simply facts on why ariel refuelling tankers are necessary in today’s military.

Simply put, ariel refuelling tankers are necessary for military jets (and helicopters) to fly any appreciable distance.  Most planes which will be flying into battle need to be topped off very soon after take-off.  They do use a prodigious amount of fuel just in taking off.  Additionally, all strategic bombers (B-52’s, B-1’s and B-2’s) are based in the US.  For them to fly to various hotspots, like the B-2’s did in Kosovo, they can only do the round trip with a number of refuellings.  The current refuelling fleet (except for the Navy) consists of modified DC-10’s or 707’s.  The 707 in particular has been outdated for decades, and I challenge anyone to tell me the last time they saw a DC-10.  You may remember that the current Air Force One, a Boeing 747, replaced a 707 based version in the late 80’s due to aging.  The Navy uses specialized aircraft based on carriers to do most of their refuelling, usually A-6’s modified with “buddy stores” of fuel.

That is why the KC-X is necessary.  There definitely was shenanigans involved in Boeing’s initially being awarded the contract, and it cost a number of high ranking military and corporate folks their jobs.

If we are going to send men and women into harms way, it makes sense to provide them with equipment that is not the same used by their grandparents.

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By RickinSF, September 10 at 11:12 pm #

Felicity, you are partially right.
Like anything else with the Pentagon, the KC-X is a boondoggle. The needs of our fighting men and women, as ever, take a back seat to politics and profit. Shit, they’re not even on the bus.

Studies have been done, rest assured, on the utility of the KC-X.
An updated fleet of aerial tankers is vital if the US is to successfully bomb Iran.

Combat jets burn prodigious amounts of fuel and would have a hard time getting from their bases (and carriers) to Tehran and back.

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By Fadel Abdallah, September 10 at 7:51 pm #

Good news! Demilitarization is one essential step to putting this country back on the right track and curb the appetite of the military-industrial complex.

You’re right felicity. This one who calls himself “voice of truth” is in fact a “voice of falsehood”!

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By felicity, September 10 at 2:11 pm #

I stand corrected, I think, but the only articles I’ve read on the subject have led me to form the opinion I’ve expressed.  Perhaps you should get on the stump and sell the things to us disbelievers.

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By voice of truth, September 10 at 10:41 am #

If you have no understanding of military logistics, please do not comment on them.  Your posting is absolutely clueless about the need for aerial refueling tankers, or the fact that the existing tankers are mostly based on 30 and 40 year old airframe designs.

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By felicity, September 10 at 9:29 am #

So, the flying gas stations have been grounded for now.  Whoever coined the word ‘boondoggle’ must have been thinking of the KC-X, the latest Defense Dept. behemoth to rob the Treasury.  Has a study ever been done to determine just exactly when, in what situation would a plane be in - that a flying gas station wouldn’t be in - where its services would be needed?  Of course not.

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