Officials involved in the joint DOD-intelligence community space radar initiative still have a ways to go to work out the kinks and arrive at a plan to which they and Congress can agree. “We are working very hard with Congress to conceive of a program that meets their needs and satisfies, from our perspective, combatant commanders,” an Air Force official said on Feb. 1 while discussing the space portion of USAF’s Fiscal 2009 budget request. “That has been a tough job for years and is still a tough job.” Congress has been critical of plans put forth for the ambitious radar system in past years and has curtailed activities, wanting a more realistic approach. USAF requests no funding for Space Radar in its unclassified accounts in Fiscal 2009, just as there is no money in the Air Force’s unclassified accounts for it in this fiscal year. Developmental activities are now occurring under classified IC budgets.
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.