DoD Cancels Refueling Competition, Tankergate Lives On

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the kabosh on the Air Force's tanker replacement competition today marking yet another end to yet another chapter in what has got to be one of the biggest black eyes in military procurement history. The program termination is being based on the fact that the DoD won't be able to complete the competition process before the end of the current presidential administration. Now either Obama or McCain will have the pleasure of adopting the red-headed step child that is the KC-X tanker replacement program. Aimed at replacing the venerable KC-135 Stratotanker, the program has been an embarrassment for the current administration for all eight years in office and has even led to the sacking of a few high ranking Air Force officials.

Ironically, McCain is one of the responsible parties from the early days of Tankergate. Since then the Air Force had rehashed the bid process and stunned the nation by awarding a contract to Northrop Grumman/EADS for their KC-45A based on the Airbus A330 airframe back in February. Not going down without a nasty catfight, Boeing filed a formal protest with the GAO citing inconsistencies in the Air Force's decision to select the KC-45A. The GAO accepted the protest and helped push the stop button on the KC-45A program in June. The very next month, the Defense Department said to hell with the Air Force and reopened the competition all over again this time running it straight from that 5-sided building on the Potomac. Things got nastier with some other Air Force SNAFUs and people up high on the chain lost their jobs as a part of this mess. So now it is only appropriate in considering the entire nightmare that has been KC-X for the whole thing to be called off.

"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," says Gates. "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." Now we are forced to sit through a "cooling off" period before the next administration starts their own chapter in what was supposed to be an already late retirement for the KC-135. Anyone really surprised? And yes, I realize that is not the current SecDef. It just really captured the theme of this post.

[Flight Global]

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Reaper Debuts In Iraqi Combat Patrols

The US Air Force's newest hunter-killer drone made it's Iraqi combat debut on July 18 as it slides into the routine patrol duty typically assigned to F-16s. The MQ-9 Reaper (formerly known as the Predator B) saw its first combat in Afghanistan last fall and quickly garnered respect for its capabilities. The British in Afghanistan even call the 5-ton Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) a "mini A-10." Defense Secretary Robert Gates' mandate to get "more surveillance systems into the fight" was a driving force in the Reaper's Iraqi deployment. By May of this year the Air Force had drones in 24 round-the-clock orbits to support the "War On Terror" and they anticipate meeting a goal of 50 orbits by year's end. There are only about a dozen Reapers in service now, so I'm not sure how they'll reach that number unless they deploy more Predators or other UAVs.


Essentially a Predator on steroids, the Reaper exceeds its predecessor in every way. Instead of a piston engine, the Reaper has a 600 shp turboprop pushing this killer to 200 kts, up a 130 kts from the Predator's top speed, giving it the ability to take out more time sensitive targets. The beefier engine also allows for a nastier payload of weaponry. Where as the Predator could only carry two Hellfire missiles, the Reaper can carry four...plus two laser-guided Paveway II bombs or two GPS guided JDAMs making this one mean robot warrior. And if the enemy is not out to play, no problem. The Reaper can loiter for quite some time up there at 50,000 feet. It has a range of 3,200 nautical miles. Each Reaper costs the Air Force $53 million a pop and it can be remotely operated by a pilot and sensor operator far from the actual fighting.



(Danger Room)

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