Lockheed Martin has agreed to provide the University of North Dakota’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Science with access to an unmanned aerial vehicle. Bruce Smith, dean of the school, says Lockheed would make an operational UAV available for test flights as early as this spring. This will fit in nicely with the school’s new UAV center of excellence, not to mention the UAV mission that awaits Grand Forks Air Force Base. The Odegard School also has applied to the state for a $3.4 million research grant that officials say it would use to expand unmanned research at the school “to promote private sector UAV-industry job growth in Grand Forks.”
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.