ARLINGTON, Va. — Despite a growing Pentagon movement toward fixed-price contracts to keep a lid on costs, U.S. Navy contracting officers should look to cost-plus contracts if there is a greater element of risk, says Sean Stackley, assistant Navy secretary for research, development and acquisition.
LONDON — AirTanker, the consortium charged with providing the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) with its air-to-air refueling capability, has taken delivery of its ninth aircraft. The arrival of the three-point Airbus A330 multi-role tanker-transport Voyager tanker to RAF Brize Norton, U.K. on May 29 completes the core-fleet of nine aircraft planned for the future strategic tanker aircraft program. The in-service fleet now includes a pair of two-point tankers, six three-point tankers and a single unmodified Airbus A330 on the U.K. civil register.
The U.S. Air Force is planning to issue a request for proposals for a new presidential aircraft by this fall, but it remains to be seen just how much of the work on the project will actually be up for competition.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing is expediting work to define a larger, more capable exploration upper stage (EUS) for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) that it says could, if approved, reduce overall costs as well as expand potential early deep-space mission possibilities to include everything from Moon or Mars missions to asteroid recovery flights.
