The House Armed Services Committee believes that the services may have blurred the “lines of responsibility for unmanned aerial vehicles, space systems, and mobility systems, … along with traditional lines between naval, expeditionary, and ground forces.” The result, states the committee’s summary of its markup of the 2008 defense authorization bill, is the “duplication of numerous capabilities.” The committee proposes an “overdue” major internal review. It wants DOD to conduct this roles and missions review every four years and to organize into core mission areas and seek out service capabilities that are outside their core competency. This sounds mighty like the Air Force’s plea for some sanity in the UAV arena.
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.