Congress now lobbies for KC-X to be based in their states

No matter who wins the contract state delegations are lobbying the Air Force to base the new tanker in their states. See The Hill for more on this. Not only are states choosing sides in which contractor should get the contract, see this previous post and this one as well, they are also trying to get the new aircraft based locally. Obviously anytime a new system is deployed with a service the basing is critical. Military facilities bring a large amount of money into a locality. Any increase in personnel will increase the economy as they need housing, food, and everything else. Huntsville is a good example of a city that has grown based on US Army and NASA money. If the Redstone Arsenal had been built somewhere else in WW II the city would be completely different. That is why the Base Realignment & Closure (BRAC) process was established to eliminate politics from the process. If left to the politicians no base would ever get closed.

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