Thursday, April 25, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
A number of secondary competition issues surrounding the Air Force's selection of its new combat search and rescue helicopter, dubbed CSAR-X, will not be addressed in the service's revised request for proposals for the program, the Government Accountability Office announced today.
Air Force officials are preparing to issue a revised request for proposals to three CSAR-X competitors that will reflect changes made to the program after the Government Accountability Office sustained two industry protests of a contract awarded last year for the project.
Defense giant Boeing today announced it has ceased procurement of parts and items related to development of its venerable C-17 airlifter, marking the initial steps the company is taking in anticipation of a complete production line shutdown by 2009, according to a senior company official said.
The Government Accountability Office today sustained two protests filed against the Air Force by Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin over the service's selection of Boeing's HH-47 Chinook as its next-generation combat search and rescue helicopter, according to a GAO statement.
The Air Force's $110 billion "working" budget for fiscal year 2008 is a $6.2 billion increase from the amount it had sought for such funding in FY-07, with a majority of the money going toward aircraft recapitalization and rising operation and maintenance costs, according to service officials and documents.
Air Force officials opted not to modify the evaluation criteria for its multibillion-dollar KC-X aerial tanker replacement effort in the final version of the program's request for proposals released today, casting further doubt as to whether one of the two industry teams vying for the contract will pull out.
In a bid to give an Air Force general at least one regional combatant command and break the Navy's tradition of leadership across the Asia-Pacific Rim, Air Force leaders are lobbying the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff to nominate an airman to lead U.S. Pacific Command.
The first production version of the Air Force's F-35 Lightning II fighter successfully completed its inaugural flight today at Lockheed Martin's testing and production facility in Ft. Worth, TX.
Military leaders from the United States, Canada and Australia are expected to sign an international procurement pact early next week that will finalize the production, sustainment and follow-on development for the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
A leading proponent of an Air Force-initiated multiyear procurement plan for the F-22 fighter aircraft rebuffed claims today that lawmakers may scrap the entire effort from the final version of the fiscal year 2007 defense authorization bill.
Whether the largest international partner in the Joint Strike Fighter program will agree to a procurement pact for the next-generation fighter hinges upon the fate of the project's alternative engine initiative, the United Kingdom's defense procurement czar told U.S. lawmakers today.
The Air Force's fiscal year 2007 budget request totals nearly $105.9 billion and features greatly increased funding for aircraft recapitalization, heavy investment in unmanned aerial vehicles and the initial dollars to replace its aging tanker fleet, according to a service official who was involved in the budget-making process.