DOD’s need for battlefield awareness and network-centric warfare has driven a boom over the last decade among contractors that have the ability to join up disparate military computers, communications networks, and sensors. But according to the interim director of the Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation, costs are getting out of hand and need to be drawn down. “We can no longer live with programs that take decades to develop,” Terry Pudas told a meeting of aerospace and defense industry executives at a Coronado, Calif., conference. He added, or ones that simply are known as being “lucrative.”
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.