Not wanting to speculate on Fiscal 2010 deliberations, Air Force Space Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler waved off most budget related questions during a March 31 meeting with reporters at last week’s Space Foundation symposium in Colorado. This included inquiries into the status of the transformational satellite communications system. Although the TSAT program was restructured just late last year, Kehler did confirm that the Air Force has been studying alternatives to the current program of record, which calls for the launch of the first TSAT communication satellite in 2019. “We have studied options and there were a number on the table, to include continuing with the existing program of record,” he said. But, we’ll have to wait on the Fiscal 2010 budget’s release to know the results as Kehler would not say. “We will see what the budget tells us to do,” he said. (For more, see the previous Daily Report entry For the Guys on the Move.)
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.