Italy Cancels Boeing Pegasus Order, Shifting to Airbus A330 MRTT

> Several defence analysts point out that although the KC-46 is the standard tanker of the USAF, it has suffered technical problems and delays that have slowed its competitiveness abroad, to the benefit of the A330 MRTT, which has already been adopted by many NATO and non-NATO allies. In this sense, the Italian choice is seen more as an industrial victory for Airbus than as an American “political defeat”.

The political factor surely played a role here, but this bit at the end of the article also sheds light on Boeing's decline, which predates the current US administration.

While politics acted as a catalyst, Boeing was ultimately defeated by its own undoing.

Meanwhile Switzerland is being taken to the cleaners. F35s that had a fix cost in contract with Lockheed are no longer fixed cost because the US says so.

Patriot systen permanently delayed and price going up and up. Stop payment resulted in the US pulling from the pre payment for the F35s...

The USAF also selected the MRTT but corruption took care of that threat to Boeing.

Gotta say, the headers in this article look AI-ish. It's getting harder and harder to tell, though.

Italy probably didn’t want to wait 12 years for delivery. Good choice.

Good? A bit of competition is good for everybody. Having one vendor for everything leads to many problems.

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