Friday, October 3, 2025
Friday, October 3, 2025
This Friday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on Air Force aircraft engines, Army contract negotiations during the previous fiscal year, coverage of how the Pentagon is handling the federal government shutdown and more.
The Air Force recently released a request for information regarding the Advanced Propulsion Acquisition Contract (APAC) Multiple Award Contract (MAC) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract:
Air Force seeks vendor pool to develop advanced engines
The Air Force is looking to strengthen its capability to rapidly develop, produce and eventually mature novel advanced aircraft engine options, according to a request for information posted this week.
Document: Air Force AFAC RFI
According to DOD’s updated shutdown implementation guidance, many acquisition and logistics support activities are considered "excepted" from the current lapse in government appropriations:
Pentagon to continue to draft its FY-27 budget despite lapse in FY-26 appropriations
The Defense Department will carry on with activities to develop the fiscal year 2027 budget request in the background of the federal government shutdown, a Pentagon official told Inside Defense.
Pentagon looks to continue most acquisition activities as shutdown begins
Congress, unable to reach a compromise on spending, triggered a federal shutdown and a massive furlough of government employees earlier this week. The Defense Department, however, is poised to continue many of its contracting and acquisition activities during the shutdown period.
Army officials recently told Inside Defense that the service had doubled the contract savings it reported in fiscal year 2024:
Army contract negotiators notch banner year, delivering $1B in additional buying power
Government negotiators drove hard bargains on behalf of the Army in fiscal year 2025, freeing up over $1 billion in just 10 months -- twice the savings achieved in all of FY-24 -- giving Army Contracting Command at Rock Island Arsenal, IL, which spearheaded the drive, time to push savings even higher.
Over the summer, the Air National Guard submitted a rebuttal to an earlier Air Force report on fighter fleet recapitalization:
ANG proposes fighter recapitalization plan through FY-40 that makes no changes to current FYDP
NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- The Air National Guard says it has a roadmap to modernize its aging fighter fleet without cutting or changing the mission of active-duty units, countering an all-or-nothing approach the Air Force detailed in a recent report to Congress.
Document: ANG rebuttal to fighter aircraft fleet recapitalization report