Besides being a contender for USAF’s new battlefield airman training facility (see above), Barksdale AFB, La., is in line for the service’s new Cyber Command. It now serves as host to the provisional headquarters and, this week, is hosting a cyber warfare symposium for some 1,650 people from academia, industry, and government. An editorial in The Times calls the event a “key building block in this crucial military and promising economic mission.” Both local and state governments in Louisiana have made significant monetary investments in setting the stage to win Cyber Command. Other states making pitches to become the permanent home to the new command include California, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.