“I can feel it in the air tonight, oh Lord” — Phil Collins
“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Drones,” Cora Currier, Pro Publica
Almost 1 in 3 U.S. Warplanes is a Robot,” Spencer Ackerman and Noah Schachtman, Wired Danger Room
“Rise of the drone: From Calif. garage to multibillion-dollar defense industry,” Peter Finn, Washington Post
Forget Wikileaks. The Air Force doesn’t need help in spilling secrets — it delivers confidential bid data directly to competing defense contractors. An Air Force clerical error sent Boeing bidding information to competitor EADS and vice versa, fouling up the $40 billion contract for a mid-air refueling tanker plane that has been delayed for a decade.
The tanker dogfight began in 2001, when ex-fighter pilot Senator John McCain (R-AZ) shot down a Boeing deal. In the bidding war that followed, Boeing offered a job to the Air Force officer running the bid. Two Boeing execs were went down in flames and did jail time, and the firm’s CEO quit.
NotionsCapital 