The Senate passed its version of the Fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill—sans more F-22s and sans F-35 alternate engine—late July 23, setting the stage next week for House and Senate authorizers to hash out differences between the version passed by the House last month. The Senate version would authorize $679.8 billion, just $4 billion shy of the Administration request. The House version, which still contains additional F-22 Raptors and the alternate engine for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, would authorize a total of $680.4 billion. Both policy bills include $130 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Boeing received a $2.47 billion Air Force contract Nov. 25 for 15 more KC-46s, bringing to 183 the number of Pegasus tankers on contract to all customers, foreign and domestic. The new contract—for Lot 12 of the initially planned KC-46 buy—is to be completed by 2029.
