Northrop Grumman Slamming Murdoc's Inbox

In a space of about 4.5 hours beginning this afternoon just after 2:00 Eastern, I received a total of 27 different emails from Northrop Grumman about the KC-45 tanker contract and related votes in Congress.

KC-45 Tanker: 1 and 1 and 1 isn't 3?
Air Force Tanker Decision Driven by Faulty Data Jed Babbin, editor of Human Events, on the controversial (to say the least) decision to go with the EADS Airbus-based tanker: The Air Force determined the ability of each competing aircraft to perform the tanker mission using a complex computer model...[READ]

Raptor and Agressors
Aggressors on the prowl Two F-15 Eagles fly in formation with an F-22 Raptor April 24 during a support mission near Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The F-15s act as "aggressors" to replicate potential adversary air force capabilities, tactics, training and equipment. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt....[READ]

NASA Super Guppy
NASA's Super Guppy sits at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., where it waits for a maintenance inspection by Air Force specialists. Project planners say the work should be completed by Aug. 22. NASA officials brought the unique aircraft to Tinker AFB because of the capability of Tinker's workforce to...[READ]

Looking for feedback on the downed pilot with a .22
In yesterday's post about the proposed three-engine interceptor version of the A-5 Vigilante, I included the story of a recon Vigilante pilot shot down over Vietnam. I'll repeat it here: Only 9 of the 36 of the aircrew shot down were rescued, with others either killed or taken prisoner. In...[READ]

NR-349 Vigilante Interceptor
Was talking a bit about the A-5 Vigilante earlier and googled across this tidbit: North American proposed advanced versions of the Vigilante to the US Air Force an interceptors. One, known as the "Retaliator", added a liquid-fuel rocket engine to the two J79s, but the Air Force didn't pursue...[READ]

Props
U.S. Commander Wants New Prop Planes in Iraq The armed reconnaissance aircraft is part of a bold plan conceived by Col. Gary Crowder, commander of the Middle East-based Combined Air and Space Operations Center,to upgrade the Air Force’s theater control system, which the service uses for air-to-ground integration ... “What...[READ]

Tanker protest will go on
GAO Declines To Throw Out Boeing Tanker Protest The Government Accountability Office has denied requests from Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force to throw out Boeing's protest of a massive tanker contract award that went to Northrop and European partner EADS, according to Air Force and Northrop Grumman press...[READ]

RA-5C Vigilante
A three-quarter portside aerial view of an RA-5C Vigilante aircraft, Reconnaissance Attack Squadron 7 (RVAH-7) known as the "Peacemakers of the Fleet" and was assigned to the USS RANGER (CV 61) from February 21 to September 22, 1979. This photograph may show the Vigilante's last flight, since all Vigilante...[READ]

Happy 25th Birthday, SDI!
Danger Room: 'Star Wars' Turns 25, Eats $120 Billion; Worth It? Murdoc votes 'Yes, probably.' A US Air Force (USAF) Booster Verification Test-5 (BVT-5) rocket launches from Space Launch Complex Twenty-One at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), California (CA), at 10:40 AM on January 9, 2004. The USAF BVT-5 tested...[READ]

USAF Synthetic Fuel
Last Wednesday, a B1-B bomber became the first Air Force plane to fly faster than the speed of sound on a blend of the new coal-derived synthetic fuel: The fuel, a 50/50 blend of synthetic and petroleum gases, is being tested as part of an ongoing Air Force program...[READ]

Curtiss XP-55 Ascender
Checked out the only surviving example of this experimental plane this weekend at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. SPECIFICATIONS: Span: 40 ft. 7 in. (later 44 ft. 6 ft.) Length: 29 ft. 7 in. Height: 10 ft. 0 in. Weight: 6,354 lbs. empty/7,710 lbs. gross Armament: Four .50-cal. machine guns...[READ]

End of the line for the F-117
F-117 Stealth Fighter to Be Retired Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, which manages the F-117 program, will have an informal, private retirement ceremony Tuesday with military leaders, base employees and representatives from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. The last F-117s scheduled to fly will leave Holloman...[READ]

Israeli Air Force to buy F-35Bs?
Israel May Switch to STOVL JSFs Israel is currently planning to acquire up to 100 of the conventional take-off F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters, but with the rapidly expanding missile threat from Gaza in the south, Lebanon in the north and - in worst-case future scenarios - from the...[READ]

Tanker Links
KC-10 Extender refuelling SR-71 Blackbird in 1981 Here are some recent links about the KC-45A tanker: Boeing to Protest $35B Tanker Contract Following a debriefing by Air Force officials March 7, Boeing questioned the fairness of the competition, citing "inconsistency in requirements, cost factors and treatment of our commercial data."...[READ]

Strike in Somalia
U.S. says it launched missile attack in Somalia Pentagon official say military going after al-Qaida suspect in border town In the strike early Monday, Somali police said three missiles hit a Somali town held by Islamic extremists, destroying a home and seriously injuring eight people. A local official said...[READ]

Always keep your receipts when buying military aircraft
Algeria Wants To Return MiGs For the first time in memory, one of Russia's arms customers may return a shipment deemed defective. Algeria's effort to send back 15 MiG-29 fighter jets might scuttle the rest of an $8 billion arms deal clinched in 2006, Russia's biggest export package since...[READ]

EADS Wins
Air Force dumps Boeing for Northrop, Airbus Northrop Grumman and the maker of Airbus planes beat out Boeing Co. to win a $35 billion government contract to build military refueling planes, the Air Force said Friday. I was telling someone yesterday that if the Europeans ended up winning, I...[READ]

Tanker
US Air Force closely guards tanker winner news Only a select few know whether top acquisition officials picked Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) or a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its European partner, Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), to build 179...[READ]

Bucks for BUFFs
B-52 money tops Air Force's 2009 wish list The nation's fleet of B-52 bombers would be fully funded and in store for repairs and upgrades under the Air Force's "unfunded priority list" for fiscal year 2009. Some $183.1 million would maintain the B-52 fleet, mostly at Barksdale Air Force Base...[READ]