Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne tells reporters that USAF would limit the new bidding war over the CSAR-X combat search and rescue aircraft replacement program to the original three contractors. Boeing won the program last year (see Nov. 9, 2006), but the Government Accountability Office upheld two successive protests by losing bidders-Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky. (On April 6, 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended the CSAR-X program.)
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.
