Within a day of remarks by the commander of the Multinational Force Iraq, US Army Gen. George Casey Jr., and US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, that said Iraqi leaders had agreed to a timetable, the new Iraqi government evinced displeasure with being held to any such timeline. In fact, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the next day that the operative words were “benchmarks” or “targets” and disclaimed specific timelines. Now, it appears that everyone is on the same page. A joint Washington-Baghdad statement (dated Oct. 28) talks about three common goals, all centering on “accelerating the pace” of turnover to Iraq. Another joint statement (dated Oct. 27), penned by Khalilzad and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, acknowledged “the issues that must be resolved with timelines for [the Iraqi government] to take positive steps forward.”
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center wants a contractor to serve as integrator for all the software sustainment of current and future upgrades to the growing KC-46 Pegasus tanker fleet.