The Air Force has awarded Boeing $35 million and Rockwell Collins $42 million for work over the next two years to upgrade the data-collection capability, safety features, and additional infrastructure at USAF, Army, and Navy test ranges, the Department of Defense announced May 1. Both companies will perform risk-reduction activities and mature technologies under their respective Common Range Integrated Instrumentation System contracts. CRIIS is envisioned to replace the 1980s-era Advanced Range Data System in use today. The goal is to make the services’ ranges interoperable and increase each range’s ability to evaluate accurately and safely complex new weapon systems, such as cruise missiles, mini bombs, and high-powered microwave and laser systems, that have increasingly greater ranges and broader effects. The Air Force aims to field the first increment of CRIIS around 2015.
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.