The Air Force is asking industry and academia to tender some suggestions for lightening the weight and reducing the footprint of its combat support resources to make them more rapidly deployable. Air Force Materiel Command’s Air Armament Center issued a sources-sought notice last week, hoping to elicit some ideas for the Fiscal 2010 budgeting cycle. It wants “information on systems, tactics, and techniques that require less intertheater airlift and fewer personnel to support, erect, and maintain operations.” And, it wants “viable” concepts that could mature within the near-term (2010-2015), mid-term (2016-2025), or far-term (2026-2035) for functional areas ranging from aeromedical evacuation to maintenance and munitions and public affairs. The push is on because “present combat support resources are aging and are quickly becoming technically obsolete.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
