Congressman Murtha Makes Inefficient Recommendation for KC-X

Congressman Murtha, the powerful Democratic head of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for defense, was visiting Mobile, AL and made a rather stupid recommendation for the KC-X program. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that he said the Air Force should split the work between Boeing and the EADS-Northrop Grumman team. Unless the military is going to buy large numbers of a system — and 150 odd tankers does not count — the costs associated with having two training, support and parts systems are unjustifiable. The aircraft would also end up more expensive as there is less economy of scale available with small lot buys. Murtha is just trying to split the knot but the suggestion is not practical.

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