Almost There

Almost There: The Air Force has secured all but about $100 million of the $950 million required to fund the acquisition of 37 manned MC-12W intelligence-reconnaissance-surveillance aircraft and associated ground equipment, Brig. Gen. Blair Hansen, director of ISR capabilities on the Air Staff, told reporters during a Pentagon briefing Jan. 23. The remaining funds, which will cover the acquisition of the final seven aircraft, are expected to come this summer as part of the next war supplemental, Hansen said. The MC-12Ws will supplement overhead ISR coverage in Afghanistan and Iraq starting later this year. The aircraft’s crew (two pilots and two sensor operators) will have the ability to communicate in real-time with ground forces via voice and video communications links. The first seven airframes, Beechcraft King Air 350 models, will feature an MX-15 high-resolution electro-optical sensor with laser pointer capability. From the eighth airframe on, the MC-12s will be based on the King Air 350 Extended Range design, which provides an additional hour-and-a-half of on-station time. They will also include a laser designator with a more accurate, narrower beam than on the pointer. This feature will “greatly” facilitate operations, said Hansen.

—Marc V. Schanz

1/27/2009

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.