USAF selects Boeing for the CSAR-X combat search and rescue replacement aircraft program. Boeing offered the HH-47, a variant of the CH-47 Chinook. (Protests upheld by the Government Accountability Office would force USAF to re-do the competition with the original three competitors- Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky. On April 6, 2009, known as “Black Monday,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended the CSAR-X program, among numerous weapons cuts.)
The U.S. began extensive air and artillery strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria on Dec. 19 in retaliation for the killing of three Americans on Dec. 13 by a gunman affiliated with ISIS, U.S. officials said.
