A host of Kansas and Air Force officials on Wednesday helped celebrate the ribbon cutting on the new intelligence center for the Air National Guard’s 161st Intelligence Operations Squadron at McConnell AFB, Kan. The Distributed Ground Station is new but the 161st has been performing intel processing duties since its parent unit, now the 184th Air Refueling Wing, lost its B-1B bombers. The squadron formed in 2003 and has practiced its trade at a variety of locations. BRAC 2005 has stripped the 184th ARW of its KC-135 tankers, but, in addition to its information operations mission, the wing will receive T-38 training aircraft. Sen. Pat Roberts told the ceremony crowd that the 184th has “resilience and adaptability.”
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.