The Air Force has been granted the authority to use streamlined federal hiring practices in order to fill more than 680 cyber-security positions expeditiously, according to officials with the Air Force Personnel Center at Randolph AFB, Tex. This hiring authority, known as Schedule A, is granted in special cases where there is a critical need for speed. It allows hiring officials to bypass traditional competitive procedures. This method will be used to fill slots for specialists in the emerging cyber mission area for US Strategic Command, 24th Air Force (USAF’s new cyber operations arm), and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Among the positions that the Air Force seeks to fill are cyber-risk and strategic analysis; cyber-vulnerability detection and assessment; cyber-incident response; and incident handling and malware/vulnerability analysis. The Air Force may apply Schedule A rules through December 2012. (Randolph report by April Rowden)
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.