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US Air Force’s new trainer jet could become its next light-attack or aggressor aircraft
Boeing-Saab's T-X trainer design won the Air Force's T-X competition in September 2018. (John Parker/Boeing)
ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force’s new T-X jets could be more than just trainers, with aggressor or light-attack missions now on the table for the Boeing-made plane, the head of Air Combat Command said Thursday.
Although buying new T-X trainers to replace the more than 50-year-old T-38 fleet still remains a top priority for that program, the service is beginning to explore whether the T-X could be procured for other uses, Gen. Mike Holmes said at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.
“You could imagine a version of the airframe that could be equipped as a light fighter. You can imagine a version that is equipped as an adversary air-training platform,” he told reporters during a roundtable.
"At the informal level, I have some guys that work for me that are thinking through what the requirement might be for those different versions. When or if that transitions and becomes something more formal will depend on a lot of things,” he said, adding that one of those variables is the budget.
So what T-X variants could the Air Force pursue?
A light-attack T-X
The Air Force still hasn’t made clear its path forward on the light-attack experiment, but leaders have said they want to broaden the effort to include aircraft beyond the turboprop planes, which were the focus of the first experiments. The T-X, or a low-cost jet like it, could have a role, said Holmes, who declined to get into specifics until the fiscal 2020 budget is released with more details.
MOAR: SOURCE: https://www.defensenews.com/digital-show-dailies/afa-air-space/2019/03/06/air-forces-new-trainer-jet-could-become-its-next-light-attack-or-aggressor-aircraft/
The Air Force awarded a contract after just 3 minutes
The Air Force awarded contracts to 51 proposals in its first ever pitch day. (ugurhan/Getty Images)
In the so-called great power competition with Russia and China, defense experts have worried that the United States is at a disadvantage because those countries are not subjected to the same contractual and legal hurdles as the Pentagon when it comes to adding new tools and weapons.
But the Air Force wants to change that and their solution plays off the popular television show “Shark Tank,” where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch solutions and win contracts in minutes, not months or years.
The Air Force’s pitch days, powered by the Small Business Innovation Research Program, looked to solve problems within the portfolios of Program Executive Offices Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Special Operations Forces and Digital.
The first of such events took place in New York City March 6 and 7. The Air Force awarded 51 proposals in 15 minutes or less, David Shahady, Air Force SBIR/STTR Program Director, said March 7. In one day, the Air Force awarded $3.5 million, including one contract in just three minutes.
“What’s most exciting is that we’re also doing things faster. That’s what pitch day was really all about,” he said. “It was about pushing the limits and trying to make the process of working with the government easier. Simplifying our contracting was the number one thing associated with that.”
MOAR SOURCE: https://www.c4isrnet.com/c2-comms/2019/03/07/the-air-force-awarded-a-contract-after-just-3-minutes/
Senator: Pentagon may tap leftover military pay, pension accounts for border wall
WASHINGTON — A top Senate Democrat says the Pentagon is planning to tap $1 billion in leftover funds from military pay and pensions accounts to help President Donald Trump pay for his long-sought border wall.
Sen. Dick Durbin told The Associated Press on Thursday: "It's coming out of military pay and pensions. $1 billion. That's the plan."
Durbin says the funds are available because Army recruitment is down and a voluntary early military retirement program is being underutilized.
The development comes as Pentagon officials are seeking to minimize the amount of wall money that would come from military construction projects that are so cherished by lawmakers.
The Illinois Democrat says, “Imagine the Democrats making that proposal — that for whatever our project is, we’re going to cut military pay and pensions.”
Durbin, the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel for the Pentagon, was among a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met with Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Thursday morning.
The Pentagon is planning to transfer money from various accounts into a fund dedicated to drug interdiction, with the money then slated to be redirected for border barriers and other purposes.
More attention has been paid to Trump's declaration of a national emergency to tap up to $3.6 billion from military construction projects to pay for the wall. The Democratic-controlled House voted last month to reject Trump's move, and the GOP-held Senate is likely to follow suit next week despite a White House lobbying push.
Senate Republicans met again Wednesday to sort through their options in hopes of making next week's voting more politically palatable. They are struggling to come up with an alternative to simply voting up or down on the House measure as required under a never-used Senate procedure to reject a presidential emergency declaration. Lawmakers in both parties believe Trump is inappropriately infringing on Congress' power of the purse.
Senators are increasingly uneasy ahead of voting next week because they don't know exactly where the money to build the wall will come from and if it will postpone military projects in their home states.
MOAR: Source - https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/03/07/senator-pentagon-may-tap-military-pay-pensions-for-border-wall/