Responding to a flurry of news reports about the “impending doom” of the GPS satellite system so critical to military and civil capabilities, Air Force Space Command on May 20 took to the Internet via Twitter. Col. Dave Buckman, AFSPC’s lead for position, navigation, and timing systems, answered questions for an hour on AFSPC’s Twitter page (www.twitter.com/AFSpace) about a Government Accountability Office report issued earlier this month that was the subject of a May 7 Congressional hearing. (See our earlier coverage No Happy Talk and About That GPS Gap) During the Twitter session, a first for AFSPC, the bottom line from Buckman was that the GPS system is not going down and it’s “very unlikely” that users will notice any accuracy issues. Buckman acknowledged, as GAO indicated, there is a potential risk for some performance degradation, but AFSPC has “active plans to mitigate any potential gap in coverage.” (Twitter session transcript)
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.