A few years ago, the U.S. Air Force planned to field by the end of last year the first of a fleet of new refueling aircraft, then envisioned as a leased derivative of the Boeing 767. After the most serious Pentagon acquisition scandal in a generation, massive congressional intervention and a decision to compete the 767 against a variant of the Airbus A330, this December is now the target for choosing between the aircraft and their respective prime contractors (Boeing and Northrop Grumman) to develop the KC-X. The tanker program has been the Air Force's top priority all along, and it remains so. But a run of acquisition blunders—notably involving the CSAR-X combat search-and-rescue helicopter, with two successful contractor protests of a development award—has set the service to dotting I's and crossing T's in its KC-X source evaluation, slowing it down.
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