All in the Family

All in the Family: Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles will not be alone in the high-altitude skies of the future as the Navy has just announced its choice of a Global Hawk variant to serve as its broad area maritime surveillance platform. Under the terms of the $1.16 billion systems development and demonstration contract announced April 22, Northrop Grumman will supply the sea service with a fleet of RQ-4N Global Hawk aircraft that will provide persistent maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data collection and dissemination capability. Northrop Grumman beat General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which offered a maritime version of its MQ-1 Predator UAV, and Boeing, which bid an unmanned Gulfstream G550 aircraft. The BAMS victory is another big win for Northrop, which is fresh off of its upset of Boeing in the Air Force’s KC-X tanker contest. The BAMS Global Hawk will be an adjunct to the Navy’s P-8A Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft.

4/23/2008

Verbatim

Fifth-Generation Apples and Oranges
“I think the notion of the F-22 as being common and similar to the F-35, we need to get rid of that. The F-35 is a very different airplane. It has similar characteristics but it’s a different airplane. ... It complements the F-22, but the F-22 is clearly an air superiority and air dominance weapon. The F-35 is a multinational, multirole, ground-to-air versatile airplane.”
—Michael Wynne, speaking to reporters on his final day in office as Air Force Secretary, June 20, 2008.

Verbatim

Call for Accountability
“The GAO’s decision in the tanker protest reveals serious errors in the Air Force’s handling of this critically important competition. We now need not only a new full, fair, and open competition in compliance with the GAO recommendations, but also a thorough review of—and accountability for—the process that produced such a flawed result.”
—Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on GAO’s decision to uphold a protest by Boeing in the Air Force KC-X tanker competition, June 18, 2008.