Regarding the CSAR-X award protests, the Government Accountability Office told the Daily Report Monday that it expects to receive a report from the Air Force in December and believes the GAO review will run right up to the established due date of late February. GAO still is carrying the Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin-Agusta Westland protests as separate cases—that could change. Meanwhile, an Air Force spokesman said the service would have no comment on the combat search and rescue aircraft award during the GAO review.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
