The Air Force on Monday intends to issue the amended draft solicitation for the Light Air Support program, announced service officials last week. The original offerors, Hawker Beechcraft and Sierra Nevada, will be eligible to participate in the restarted program to supply 20 multirole light-attack aircraft to the Afghan air force starting in mid 2014—a delay of some 15 months compared to the program’s original schedule, they said in a release. Service officials plan to meet separately on Monday with representatives from both companies to discuss the terms of the revised draft proposal, states the release. Both companies will have the opportunity to submit comments; the Air Force expects to release the final version of the amended request for proposal by April 30. Service officials aim to award the LAS contract early next year, enabling “the first aircraft delivery to Afghanistan in third quarter 2014,” states the release. The Air Force chose Sierra Nevada at the end of last year as the LAS supplier. The service subsequently withdrew the company’s contract after discovering that the documentation justifying its decision to procure 20 modified A-29 Super Tucanos was inadequate. That decision gives Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 another shot.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
