I told you the KC-767 is ready to go.
http://www.boeing.com/ids/globaltank...5774_TEC_5.pdf
That was last year!
Japan also has been testing its KC-767.
http://www.boeing.com/ids/globaltank...5774_TEC_4.pdf
The KC-45 doesn't even exist yet either! The KC-767 is already developed and about ready for the flight line in militaries around the world!
http://www.boeing.com/ids/globaltank...5774_TEC_6.pdf
But no - lets build something completely brand new and hardly more capable, and completely less survivable, and way less flexable! Lets put it on a A330 frame that uses 81% greater footprint over a KC-135! Of course we need the infrastructure to support such a large aircraft - nice. The KC-767 holds nearly as much fuel, and only has a 21% greater footprint than the KC-135, and on top of that, should save us $8 Billion in fuel savings simply to fly the damn thing! Yes - politics doesn't always pick the best winner since we clearly have an inferior product with the selected KC-45. Nice.
-S
PS. Can you tell the more i read about this the more I get ticked off? I didn't realize how big a cockup this all was!
PPS. Found another link on it with Gates this time -
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...2/ai_n25451990