|
|
Seeking 100 Quick-Turn IW Aircraft
Seeking 100 Quick-Turn IW Aircraft:  The Air Force wants to find a fixed-wing light attack/armed reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft that it can field beginning in Fiscal 2012. Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, issued a capability request for information last week to "explore cost effective options" to fill a need for 100 such aircraft. This aircraft must be able to operate from dirt fields at forward operating locations where the pilots will find jet fuel and not much else. According to the announcement, "the aircraft must be capable of employing a variety of air-to-ground weapons and munitions," including aerial gunnery, at least two 500-pound class precision munitions, 2.75-inch rockets, and flares. This new irregular warfare aircraft is to have dual, tandem seats with dual controls for both pilots, enabling it to function as either a combat or training aircraft, and its supposed to be armored against small-arms fire. There's no indication whether this platform would fill the new light gunship capability desired by special operators. USAF has said it's investigating several platforms, but US Special Operations Command in late June said it still wanted a C-27 gunship. According to the announcement, the service would like to achieve initial operating capability with the LAAR aircraft in Fiscal 2013.
8/3/2009
|
Verbatim
Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010. |
|
Verbatim
Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.
|
|
|