Looks like Australia will go with the JSF

Australia had being going back and forth on wanting the F-22 instead of the JSF. China, I am sure, has a lot to do with this. According to this story, the decision has been made to go with the F-35. America has a law preventing the export of the F-22, but Australia had asked for it anyway. There was some desire from the USAF to sell it, as every FMS sale lowers the price and the Air Force would like some more. The only way that is going to happen is to get it cheaper. So it will have to be seen if any sales overseas are made. Certainly Australia and the UK would be the prime customers for the F-22.

Australia cuts bait

The Australian government decided after all to go ahead with the purchase of the F/A-18 to gap fill until the JSF is available. An article is here. The new more liberal government had discussed canceling the contract to save money. Now they claim they have been able to reduce the total cost, so it is worthwhile. See a previous article here. Read more

Boeing continues to support KC-10 fleet while waiting on KC-X

The US Air Force gave Boeing a $307 m contract to continue logistics support for the most modern tankers in their fleet, the KC-10. See the St. Louis Business Journal here for more. Boeing and EADS continue to wait for the US Air Force to come to some decision on the KC-X program. If the Air Force had invested in more KC-10 aircraft in the 80’s, when there certainly was an ability to buy them, there would not be the issues today. The KC-X arose out of the ill-fated plan to lease KC-767 aircraft from Boeing in 2001-2002. This collapsed under ethical issues. Now six years later there is still not a replacement aircraft.

McDonnell Douglas awarded Navy Harpoon contract

The US Navy awarded Boeing component McDonnell Douglas a $74 M contract for anti-ship missile Harpoon III development. See Forbes here for more information. The Harpoon is one of only two successful anti-ship systems developed in the west. The other being the French designed and produced Exocet. For more on the Harpoon system see this at Wikipedia.