Congress has expressed “concern” about the ability of the Air Force and industry to “manage expensive and complicated satellite programs such as Space Radar.” Lawmakers wrote in the 2006 defense spending bill that there is “broad agreement” that USAF should, in a word, slowdown. As with TSAT, they want “greater emphasis on maturing technologies” and, even, more work on “existing radar assets (such as airborne surrogates).” They didn’t kill Space Radar (once called Space-Based Radar), just cut it sharply and asked for a spending plan.
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.