The Global Cyberspace Integration Center at Langley AFB, Va., has transitioned 11 new systems to the warfighter in the past 12 months that were demonstrated during Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment activities. And the center says it isn’t done yet, with plans to move five more from the laboratory to the battlespace within the next four months. The GCIC is the lead agency for JEFX, the quarterly field experiment to assess initiatives that could fill identified warfighting capability gaps. “We aim to provide capability to the first operational unit within 18 months of approval and funding following a successful experiment,” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Fitton, GCIC transition management branch chief. Capabilities that GCIC has transitioned include the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Analysis Tool that is in place at an air base in Southwest Asia. Also in use are the Global Situational Awareness Tool, a suite of medical-intelligence, mission-planning and decision-support tools, and Project Suter V, which was developed for Air Force Cyber Command. Suter provides a joint view of the tactical information battlespace to synchronize kinetic, non-kinetic and ISR operations against mobile, networked adversary systems. (Langley report by Capt. Larry van der Oord)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.