My proposal is a bit more straighforward:
We’ve dinked around long enough that we are way behind in replacing older KC-135Es, so let’s combine the KC-X and follow-up KC-Y programs, and buy 12 of each type per year, every year, until ALL of the KC-135s are replaced.
One a month should be enough to keep both production lines in business.
We have reason to believe that there are still strong factions within the Northrop-EADS teams who support going forward with a bid.
There are equally strong factions who believe that a protest to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that the RFP is unfair.
http://leehamnews.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/northrop-may-decide-on-kc-x-this-week-or-next/