Boeing’s tanker bid is in for the $40 billion program. The company stresses what is says are lower operating costs and more U.S. jobs. The 8,000-page proposal “offers an American-made, 767-based multi-mission tanker that will satisfy all 372 mandatory Air Force requirements and be capable, survivable, and combat-ready at the lowest cost to the taxpayer,” according to the company’s press release.

Demonstrably proud of their bid on the KC-X tanker, EADS NA officials turned it in one day early and the company’s chairman slammed Boeing for “wasting a lot of time trying to derail” the competition “because someone thinks their plane is inferior.” Boeing’s attacks amounted, said company chairman Ralph Crosby, to a lot of “crap.”

Marine Gen. James Mattis, currently commander Joint Forces Command, will replace Gen. David Petraeus as the next commander of U.S. Central Command, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced today. If confirmed by the Senate, the blunt speaking general will bring considerable regional experience to his new post. He served as a battalion commander during 1991’s Desert Storm, commanded the Marine forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and commanded the Marines in Iraq during the invasion in 2003 and during the bloody fight for Fallujah in 2004.

At a time when international partners are skittish about rising costs for the Joint Strike Fighter program and allies have complained about access to program information, not a single Joint Strike fighter will head to the Farnborough Air Show and no one from the JPO will attend the show. We confirmed the JSF and Joint Program Office rumors late this afternoon with a Pentagon spokeswoman. Separately, we hear the head of Pentagon acquisition, Ash Carter, may attend the show though we have been unable to confirm this.

The first really clear indication that serious planning was underway to strike at Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons site came a month ago when British news outlets reported that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to cross its airspace en route to Iranian targets.

Yesterday, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said publicly that his country was willing to live with the consequences of a strike against Iran. Now Sen. Lieberman says in Israel that the U.S. will use military action “if it must.”

If ever there was a sign of a feisty and rising power, this is it. China is taking credit for a truncated buy of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that hasn’t even happened, yet. The website of China’s state-run People’ Daily reported that the Obama administration was reconsidering its purchase of F-35 fighters because of China’s rapidly growing military prowess.

The world’s largest defense company is squeezing the sponge again, declaring a new plan to slash the ranks of directors and vice presidents. “We’re taking bold and responsible action to address the new reality of our business environment consistent with our customers’ need to improve efficiency and deliver additional savings,” Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Bob Stevens said in a press statement. “Our customers are facing increasing demands with constrained resources, and they’re relying on us to give them the very best value within these constraints.”

Our colleague Manu Sood, editor of the Indian defense website 8ak​.com covers the impending $10 billion deal for the Indian Air Force’s new multi-role aircraft. While it’s too soon to predict a likely winner for India’s huge competition for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), the first indicators should be out as early as the next week when the technical evaluation committee’s report comes out. This deal for 126 fighters may cost $10 billion, but there exist huge price variances between the offered fighters of varying capability. And it is not yet clear if the number of fighters is fixed or the budget figure is.

Notwithstanding those three staunch, tough words underling the stakes in space, most of the experts seem to agree that the Obama administration’s new national space policy should create a much more amenable international environment for the United States to hammer out guidelines, agreements and treaties governing issues such as how to handle space debris and more general military and civilian uses of space. One huge difference between the Bush and Obama administrations: the Bush White House took almost six years to turn out its first space policy. Obama’s people did it in roughly 18 months, which would seem to indicate a keener interest and commitment to the issues involved.

As the House of Representatives moves to vote on the supplemental war spending bill which has moved with leaden speed through Democratic hands, the GOP has come out swinging, accusing the majority of “taking dangerous political potshots at our troops’ mission and the president’s strategy.” Some Democrats have submitted amendments to the supplemental bill which led Rep. Buck McKeon, top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, to claim they “would cripple the President’s strategy for Afghanistan.”

Last week, we wrote that the Air Force Council, the blue suiters board that advises the air chief, was considering deep cuts to force structure to meet aggressive savings targets laid out by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. One option they are reportedly considering is early retirement of all 66 B-1B Lancer bombers, last delivered in the late 1980s. While it may not save the fleet, the Lancers got a hearty shout-out from newly installed Afghan commander Gen. David Petraeus. “It is a great platform,” he told senators at his confirmation hearing. “It carries a heck of a lot of bombs… and it has very good intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.”