The Air Force is on track to have its entire inventory of family housing privatized at its stateside bases in 2012, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. “We are currently, if I am not mistaken, at around 47,000 privatized units and that will increase when we get done to somewhat over 52,000,” he told the House Appropriations Committee’s military construction panel in testimony. So far, satisfaction rates for USAF families residing in the privatized homes is generally higher, hovering “around the 80 percent category,” compared to “somewhere down in the 70s” for those in government-managed homes, said Schwartz. He acknowledged there “is some difference” in satisfaction levels for those in privatized units depending on the property-management firms. “Some are better than others,” he said. Service officials continue to stress to private management that “a customer-oriented focus” is “vitally important,” he told the lawmakers April 7.
The Space Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $398 million contract to design and build a communications satellite prototype with advanced anti-jam and data processing capabilities. The service announced the contract for the Enhanced Protected Tactical SATCOM-Prototype program, or Enhanced PTS-P, May 15, and said the satellite will launch no sooner than…