Air Education and Training Command wants some assistance in conducting flying and maintenance training for a couple of helicopters—the Russian-made Mi-17 and Bell’s Huey II. AETC has issued a sources sought to see if there are any parties interested in teaching the ins and outs of these two non-USAF helicopters. Apparently, an increase in the requirement for airmen—aircrews and mechanics—qualified in these two aircraft has outstripped the US government’s training capability in this area. The US airmen, in turn, will be training Iraqi and Afghani airmen. Responses are due Aug. 17.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.