As predicted, Lockheed Martin filed a protest on Aug. 14 with the Government Accountability Office against US Army Materiel Command for knocking the company out of the Joint Cargo Aircraft competition. The Army bumped Lockheed’s short-fuselage C-130J from the competition because it claims the aircraft doesn’t have FAA approval. Lockheed says, not so. GAO expects to render its decision by Nov. 22.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…