New York lawmakers have begun to pressure the Air Force to reopen the combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program. Letters have gone to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne from Sen. Hillary Clinton, Rep. Michael Arcuri, and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, expressing dismay that the service plans to “narrowly” view the Government Accountability Office decision on the CSAR-X protests by Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky. The three Democrats are particularly interested in giving Lockheed, with its Owego, N.Y.-based helicopter plant, another bite at the apple.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
