The haggling over rent at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan may be coming to a close, now that officials at the US Embassy in Bishkek say they want a “quick conclusion” to discussions with the Kyrgyz government, an embassy spokesman told Reuters news service. The comment came a day after Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev told the US he would evict the American military if the US did not agree to a new monetary arrangement. Manas serves as a primary staging area for USAF refueling tankers supporting operations in Afghanistan.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.