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.
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.