A unit of the Tennessee Air National Guard at McGhee Tyson Airport near Knoxville now is operating US Strategic Command’s first Distributive Command and Control facility. (We missed this STRATCOM release on Dec. 1.) STRATCOM expects the DCCs to ensure sustained communications during a natural disaster or national security emergency. Tennessee was one of the states hard hit by BRAC 2005, and has been actively seeking some new missions, in particular to replace the airlift mission lost when BRAC cut C-130s from Nashville’s 118th Airlift Wing. The state last summer indicated it might have an edge in gaining the new Joint Cargo Aircraft. And, striking early with Defense Secretary-select Robert Gates, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) met with Gates on Dec. 6 to urge him to place a JCA unit with the 118th AW.
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.