The Air Force’s Light Cargo Aircraft program and the Army’s Future Cargo Aircraft program officially are now one—the Joint Cargo Aircraft. Confirmation of a formal agreement came Friday afternoon as Brig. Gen. Andrew Dichter, Air Staff deputy director for joint integration, and Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, director of Army aviation, briefed reporters at the Pentagon. Request for proposals should go out within two weeks. And, within two years, the Army expects to field its first JCA to begin replacing its C-23 Sherpa fleet. The general officer tag team discounted any reported disputes between the services over the program, saying service leaders would approve a formal agreement by May.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.