Northrop wins, Boeing/Lockheed lose bomber contract

Oct. 27, 2015: Northrop Grumman, builder of the B-2 bomber in the USAF inventory, was awarded the contract to build the next generation long-range bomber, which is yet to be named. For the moment, we’ll call it the… Read More

Pontifications: Dueling refueling tankers

Sept. 21, 2015, © Leeham Co.: This Friday, Sept. 25, is the date that at long last, Boeing and the US Air Force expect the first flight of the KC-46A that is equipped with the fueling system. A… Read More

Pontifications: FAA shouldn’t be surprised at composite fire duration

August 24, 2015, (c) Leeham Co. News that the US Federal Aviation Administration was surprised at the duration of the composite fire with the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 in 2013 came as a surprise to the agency, but… Read More

Boeing’s MOP and Iran’s nuke program

June 25, 2015: We don’t often stray into military topics, usually confining ourselves to commercial derivative programs like the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, KC-46a, Airbus KC-330 and the like. But, of all places, Politico has an interesting three-screen piece… Read More

Overlooked possibilities for the A330neo

There are overlooked possibilities for the Airbus A330-800 and A330-900 New Engine Options. What, you may ask, are these? The A330neo might give new life to the poor-selling A330-200F program and, perhaps more importantly better position Airbus to… Read More

BAE Systems is growth opportunity for EADS

Update, Sept. 13: Here are some stories from today: Bloomberg: EADS move seen by Boeing as growth; Revives decade-old plan; and this update about the rankings: BAE is the ninth biggest vendor to the U.S. government, with $7.3… Read More

Countdown on KC-X tanker award

Comments are still closed. Readers interested in posting Comments, please read our New Policies on Comments. Comments are re-opened, but moderated. EADS CEO Louis Gallois went public today in Europe with his prediction that the USAF will award… Read More

“More has been costing more”

With the Pentagon’s announcement this week that a major push has begun to wring costs out of the defense budget, will this macro approach trickle down to one of the largest defense procurements in decades–the KC-X tanker recapitalization?… Read More

Hoisted on own petard?

Update, May 19: With all the references in Comments about the GAO ruling, we are linking the 150+ page report here, courtesy of Sgt. Mac: GAO KC-X 2008 Protest Update, May 17, 4:30PM PDT: Reuters has this story… Read More

Tit for tat on KC-X

Stephen Trimble of Flight Global has EADS’ opening shot on talking point in Congress. It is brutally frank and takes off the gloves often kept on by Northrop Grumman in the KC-X competition. We’ve seen–but do not yet… Read More