After several weeks of testing, the Air Force has declared Raytheon’s Distributed Common Ground System at Ramstein AB, Germany, ready for operational use. The network-centric system connects a range of intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance systems seamlessly allowing for “real-time” and “multiagency intelligence sharing and collaboration,” according to a company release. “The US Air Force ran regular missions using the upgraded DCGS baseline over several weeks and concluded it was ready to use for intelligence tasking, processing, exploitation, and dissemination,” said Mark Kipphut, Raytheon’s deputy director of tactical intelligence systems. A similar system at JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, is slated to become operational “early next year,” he said. (See also A Giant Step Forward in the Daily Report archives)
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.