Originally Posted by
chopper2004
Airbus and L-M are apparently joining forces to pitch / propose the A330 tanker solutions to the Pentagon , thus kind of disrupting the USA aerial tanker marketplace. Largely because they see the likes of the Marine Corps and Naval aviation more and more using contracted out AAR (Omega). So the Airbus/ L-M conglomerate can see pitch in there.
As an aside, one of the original missions of the P-8 was aerial refueling. But USAF objected claiming USN was treading on their exclusive turf with a jet powered aerial tanker. USN backed off. USN has now done an end around by acquiring the MQ-25 Stingray
unmanned aerial tanker. USAF could not claim they have anything like that. So if the point of this commercial aerial tanking program is to provide tanking to USN, the MQ-25 program may well kill any such notion.