Air Force awards KC-X to team of Northrop Grumman and EADS
The Air Force announced today that the Northrop Grumman and EADS team won the KC-X contract. News story is here. This is a huge decision and marks a major change in US defense policy. Local reaction in Seattle can be found here, obviously there is a great disappointment at the news. No reason for why the A330 was selected over the 767 for the KC-45 contract, but it probably has a lot to do with price and the fact that the KC-30 is more configurable then the KC-767. Part of the problem is that consolidation in the US has led to there being only one company able to bid on this work, Boeing, and the Air Force tried the sole source route back in 2001-2002 and a few investigations and jail sentences later this is what you get.
