With dwindling work for contractors in a time of shrinking funds, the Air Force is keenly aware that industrial base concerns have to be a component in any procurement decisions, said Secretary Michael Donley. “The fewer the resources available, the bigger these decisions get,” said Donley at a press conference during AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 22. In any source-selection decision, Donley said, “we do have to be mindful of our future needs for the Department of Defense in the technologies and specific engineering talent needed to support development of new technologies, especially if we have to go through a very, very lean period.” The Air Force is trying to promote competition in some areas, such as space launch, but in other areas where work is just too limited, “it makes it harder for [companies] in some cases to survive a decision in which they are not selected,” he said. There’s a risk of those firms “not coming back into the business if they don’t win,” he noted.
Due to the prolonged delay in deliveries of the Tech Refresh 3 version of the F-35 fighter, Denmark is pulling six of its TR-2-configured F-35 jets stationed in the U.S. back to home base in order to consolidate aircraft and get better training for its pilots and maintainers, the Danish…