T
he Pentagon announced Wednesday at 5 p.m. that the Army and Air Force had picked the L-3 Communications team’s C-27J Spartan as the Joint Cargo Aircraft. The team includes L-3, Alenia North America, Boeing, and Global Military Aircraft Systems. The contract calls for purchase of up to 78 aircraft at an estimated cost of $2.04 billion. The team will manufacture the aircraft at Alenia’s plant in Italy and perform additional work at L-3’s Waco, Tex., facility. The Army issued the contract, but lawmakers have questioned whether the Air Force should take exclusive control of the intra-theater airlift mission.
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.
