The switch to a new intelligence mission for the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Fighter Wing at Otis ANGB, Mass., has hit a funding wall, reports the Cape Cod Times. Unit officials tell the Times that there is no money for needed construction, equipment, and training. A new Government Accountability Office report says USAF’s transformation plan for the Air Guard lacks adequate funding and space in technical schools. So far, the Otis unit has only been able to train eight Air Guardsmen in the new intel mission, which calls for Otis airmen to operate a Distributed Ground Station. The 102nd needs at least 70 to meet its initial operational capability date of January 2008. Meanwhile, it will begin to lose its F-15s this fall, and the new intel mission will not support all the unit’s airmen.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.