Daily Report

July 28, 2011

The F-35 will be “Okay”

If Lockheed Martin can stick to the practices the Pentagon is demanding on F-35 production, there should be few cost surprises ahead on the program, Shay Assad, director of defense pricing in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, said...

Cashflow, not Default

If the federal government fails to increase the debt ceiling next week, work can still continue on defense contracts, Richard Ginman, director of defense procurement and acquisition policy at the Pentagon, said Wednesday. “The issue is not one of default,”...

Quite Some Concern

The ramifications of the Pentagon’s looming 12-year, $400 billion budget cut on the Air Force’s ability to recapitalize its aging aircraft fleets are causing service officials “quite some concern,” Vice Chief of Staff Philip Breedlove told lawmakers. “We do have...

Proving Maturity

The Air Force’s first two F-35A production aircraft, AF-6 and AF-7, have flown 98 percent of the flight training syllabus envisioned for the new stealth fighter, said Maj. Gen. C.D. Moore, F-35 program office deputy director, Wednesday. “We’re flying those...

Minuteman Missile Malfunctions in Flight Test

An unarmed Minuteman III ICBM experienced an anomaly during an operational flight test Wednesday from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., forcing testers to destroy it for safety reasons over the Pacific Ocean, announced officials with Vandy’s 30th Space Wing. “Established parameters were...

F-35 Group Discount

It might be cheaper to build F-35 strike fighters in large batches of one variant at a time, said Shay Assad, who oversees defense pricing for the Pentagon. “We’re literally in the middle of that right now. . . ....

Underrunning the Overrun

Boeing’s lowball winning bid on the KC-46 tanker may take a smaller bite out of the company’s hide than expected, Pentagon Director of Defense Pricing Shay Assad told defense reporters in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. Press reports have pegged Boeing’s actual...

New Engines for Older Herks?

The Air Force is considering purchasing more fuel efficient, commercially available engines for its older C-130 transports, said Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Philip Breedlove during the recent Army & Air Force Energy Forum in Arlington, Va. The service has...

Utah Lawmakers Say F-22 Program Officers Moving to Hill

The Air Force has agreed to move F-22 program engineers and procurement officials to the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah, according to a joint release from three Republican members of the state’s Congressional delegation: Sen. Orrin Hatch,...

Global Hawk Flies with New Radar

Northrop Grumman announced that, for the first time, an RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 remotely piloted aircraft completed a full system flight with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program, or MP-RTIP, sensor. MP-RTIP is a sophisticated radar jointly produced by...