A number of bidders are lining up behind the recently released request for proposals for the new combat search and rescue aircraft, dubbed CSAR-X. The program potentially would produce 141 helicopters for an estimated $8 billion contract. Likely candidates include: a variant of Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook, the US101 from the Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland team, and the HH-92 from Sikorsky. According to Gannett News Service, Boeing and Bell may offer the V-22 Osprey. USAF plans to make the contract award in May 2006.
The future U.S. bomber force could provide a way for the Pentagon to simultaneously deter conflict with peer adversaries in two geographically disparate theaters, said Mark Gunzinger, the director of future concepts and capability assessments at AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, during a March 21 event. But doing so…