Washington, DC – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) released the following statement concerning the Secretary of Defense’s decision to cancel the current KC-X Tanker solicitation: 

 “I appreciate the Secretary of Defense's efforts to use a cooling off period to ensure the tanker competition proceeds in a fair and competitive way.  I will urge the new administration to put this program at the top of its acquisition agenda.

 “The Air Force continues to tell Congress that it needs to recapitalize its airborne tanker inventory because of the age of the current fleet and budget constraints that limit the annual procurement numbers.  This process has gone on for seven years and it appears will go on for at least another year, but we need to move forward to replace the venerable Air Force KC-135 tanker.” 

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