Gen. Stephen Lyons, the Army general heading up TRANSCOM, says there is no ongoing work for a space plane to carry supplies.

The cascade of problems with the plane, which Boeing called low risk and promised to deliver 18 combat-ready aircraft in 2017, is unlikely to deliver planes ready for war for several more years, Gen. Maryanne Miller, the head of Air Mobility Command, made clear today.

“We’ve been kicking around this idea that there needs to be a milestone past D; a milestone E where the program is proving elderly and we’re having to do Herculean tasks to keep airplanes flying that should have been retired long ago,” says Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper.

Amid chatter about what aircraft will make their way to Paris, the Air Force going all in.

WASHINGTON: While the Air Force accepted delivery of the first KC-46 today, Boeing could face a total of $4.5 billion in cost overruns and withheld payments on the initial $4.9 billion contract for 52 KC-46 airborne tankers, depending on what happens as the company tries to fix the plane’s Remote Vision System. How does that… Keep reading →

As the Boeing tanker continues to see delays and cost overruns, the Air Force is airing its complaints.

WASHINGTON: Air Mobility Command, an experienced observer of gaining FAA certification for civilian aircraft rebuilt for military purposes, is using its knowledge to try to lower the costs of the replacement for Air Force One. The head of AMC, Gen. Carlton Everhart, told me this afternoon they hoped to find “efficiencies” in the process of… Keep reading →

AFA: The Air Force needs more tankers and transports because a sophisticated enemy like Russia or China can shoot them down, the chief of Air Mobility Command said here. The current fleet size is based on war plans that only considered how much fuel, supplies, equipment, and troops the air fleet needed to move from… Keep reading →

  The core task of the men and women who buy America’s weapons is to envision the adversaries and environments of tomorrow and buy forces that are up to the challenge. This involves generating a similar set of assumptions to those used by operational strategists. Today, three assumptions underpin U.S. acquisition strategy that will leave tomorrow’s forces… Keep reading →

Believe it or not, Boeing really has made progress on the KC-46 tanker, after incurring at least $1.3 billion in cost overruns. Today, it got the only kind of proof that really matters to a corporation: they got the government’s promise of $2.8 billion for doing their job. The contract award of $2.5 billion is… Keep reading →