The Kansas City Star has this lengthy article that describes the whole situation and explains how we got where we are with the KC-X tanker RFP. The article by Cleon Rickle may be found here. Key takeaways are:

“”I am confident Boeing can build the best plane for the Air Force, no matter the competition,” said U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts,of Kansas. “However, I urge the Department of Defense to run a fair competition and avoid coddling EADS to the detriment of American warfighters who have waited eight years for this contest to end and decades for a new tanker.”

“We will offer a modern, more capable tanker in response to the Defense Department’s decision to encourage competition for this major taxpayer investment,” said EADS North America chairman Ralph Crosby, Jr. “Our KC-45 is the only real, flying, low-risk solution that today meets the demanding Air Force air refueling requirements and is actually in production now. ”

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) whose efforts frustrated the Air Force’s attempts to award Boeing a lease deal for the new tanker back in 2001 – 2004 started the whole competition now says that he wants an independent “watchdog” as part of this source selection. He was not clear as to who he would want to do this but hopes to have an unbiased source selection.

If there is a protest over the latest attempt the GAO will be the “independent” agency tasked with sorting that out. If they fail there is always the U.S. Court of Appeals. Those should be independent enough for Senator McCain.