The Air Force expects to award the contract for the Light Air Support program by early December, USAF spokesman Lt. Col. Jack Miller told the Daily Report Monday. Miller said he could not comment on the status of any of the proposals in the LAS competition “due to the ongoing source selection,” when asked about Hawker Beechcraft’s announcement last week that the Air Force had excluded the company’s AT-6 aircraft from further consideration. Meanwhile, Michelle Erlach, spokeswoman for Sierra Nevada, the US company teamed with Brazil’s Embraer in offering the Super Tucano to be LAS, told the Daily Report that the Air Force had “not given us any further update,” but that the Tucano was still in the competition. The Air Force is planning to acquire 20 LAS aircraft for the Afghan air force. (See Monday’s initial coverage.)
The Pentagon plans to use U.S. Air Force C-17s and C-130s to deport 5,400 people currently detained by Customs and Border Protection, officials announced Jan. 22, the first act in President Donald Trump’s sweeping promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants and increase border security.