The Air Force will not simply “start over” with the snake-bit combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said yesterday afternoon at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. The program was won by Boeing’s HH-47 last year, but the Government Accountability Office has upheld two successive protests by losing bidders—Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky. Wynne said the service would release “amendment five” to the request for proposals in late October, again holding the competition to just the original bidders. “May the best company win,” he said. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said he’s trying to hold onto the originally planned in-service date. If the schedule is broken, he’ll have to find money to extend the service lives of the HH-60 Pave Hawks, and he doesn’t have any money for that.
Airmen and Guardians in the Active and Reserve component, as well as civilian employees, in “mission critical and high-risk populations” are now required to receive influenza vaccinations annually to “preserve force readiness,” according to a recent Department of the Air Force memo.