A "split buy" in the embattled KC-X tanker competition would have no benefit to the military and would result in billions of dollars in cost increases, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote last week in a letter to Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The letter follows Gates' announcement earlier this month that he was canceling the tanker program, leaving the fate of the Air Force's tanker requirements in the hands of the next administration. Skelton...
