In its 
evaluation of the Lockheed Martin candidate for the combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program, the Air Force decided that Lockheed was not meeting “important schedule requirements” and was having “difficulty” in transmitting systems engineering processes to subcontractors in its work on the new VH-71 Presidential helicopter program. It was that vote of “little confidence” in past performance, according to a just released account of the Government Accountability Office’s CSAR-X protest decision, that led USAF to dismiss “modest” life cycle cost savings offered by Lockheed’s CSAR-X entrant. Responding to this revelation Wednesday, Lockheed cried foul, asserting that the Navy’s VH-71 helicopter program “is now on track to meet its aggressive initial operational capability date of October 2009.” And, the Navy agrees, telling the Owego (N.Y.) Star-Gazette that it had accelerated the “challenging” program by three years and is showing “good progress.” Per Lockheed, “The Air Force evaluation of our past performance is no longer current.”
Pentagon Task Force, FAA to Test Counter-Drone Laser
March 7, 2026
The Pentagon’s counter-drone task force announced it would conduct a high-energy laser test with the Federal Aviation Administration less than a month after the use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border prompted the FAA to shut down the airspace over El Paso, Texas.