The Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $60 million contract to begin production of the next five RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. Northrop officials say the company expects to begin production of hardware late this year and assembly next year. The new RQ-4B is designed to carry 3,000 pounds of payload—a 50 percent increase over the RQ-4A model—to deliver and increase the amount and type of information available to warfighters.
After nearly a yearlong vacancy, the Air Force has a Vice Chief of Staff once more. The Senate confirmed Gen. John D. Lamontagne to the service’s No. 2 job on Jan. 30 in an uncontroversial voice vote, along with a new head of U.S. Southern Command and five Air Force three-stars.
