Also, in case you haven't seen this one yet. EADS won't protest the Air Force's award of the $35 billion KC-X contract to rival Boeing. This means the decade-long KC-X saga is finally moving forward. Expect Boeing's 767-based tankers to be in the air within the next five years, if all goes well from here on out. The jet pictured above is one of EADS' A330-based tankers it built for the Royal Australian Air Force; essentially the same plane it offered in KC-X.
Here's what EADS North America Chairman Ralph Crosby told reporters today, via Defense News:
"After meeting with the Air Force and the Department of Defense, and evaluating the information they provided to us in their debriefing, EADS North America has decided not to protest the KC-X contract award," he said. "Our reasoning is simple: The acquisition architecture for this procurement ... was quite mechanistic and mathematical. The outcome was decided by price, and Boeing's offer was at a lower price than ours."
