Several news reports indicate the Air Force likely will review its award of the combat search and rescue replacement aircraft award to Boeing. Although there is no definite word from the service, the Government Accountability Office, as we reported in the last Daily Report, has received separate protests from losing CSAR-X competitors, Lockheed Martin-Agusta Westland with the US101 and Sikorsky with the H-92. Air Force officials have justified their selection of Boeing’s HH-47, saying Boeing’s helicopter met its requirements and Boeing could provide the HH-47 earlier than the other competitors could provide their entrants. GAO has until late February to render a decision.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.