The program managers in and out of the military would never admit it.

It ain’t over yet. Protests. EADS / Northrop won twice with the KC-45, only to be protested and ultimately awarded to Boeing.

Then again, the RAF doesn’t intend to fight a real war. Military expenditures in NATO countries are not designed to defeat a real potential foe.

Boeing “won” the KC-46 tanker project, after losing it and protesting twice. There is a program ceiling cost, after which costs hit Boeing’s bottom line. They are rapidly approaching that ceiling now. Watch Senator Patty Murray squirm and introduce legislation to bail out Boeing at the expense to American tax payers.…

So the two concepts to make this an “economical” program are badly flawed: (1) Design/Build/Test concurrently (2) Commonality of parts

I don’t consider 10 years a laughable timeline.

But, think of all the promotions that would be lost.

And they kind of give “warm hugs” rather than any real passion.

+1 for the screen name

Sorry you had to return to 29 Palms. That place is a s**thole

You might want to add (based on the story) you would be pissed UNLESS it was part of a well orchestrated campaign stunt.

South Korea can go from a relative benign environment to armageddon central in about 5 minutes. A real cushy assignment would be Camp Pendelton, near San Diego. No real danger and beautiful weather and beaches.

On one hand, it is a little unsavory that this was contrived as a publicity stunt for her campaign. She gets extra “Hillary points” for this in my opinion.