The Air Force has converted its C-130J multiyear purchase contract with Lockheed Martin from a commercial type procurement arrangement to a traditional military contract. An Air Force press release noted that the rewickered deal repriced 39 aircraft, saving the government $168 million. The service has been working on this new arrangement for almost a year and indicated last February that it would get to review pricing on 23 aircraft under a previous contract. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been riding USAF to get the lead out on this revamp, but the Air Force maintained it needed to move slowly to ensure it got the best deal. Calculating from an original $66.5 million per aircraft, it now appears USAF is paying about $62.2 million per aircraft.
The Air Force is finished evaluating the proposed “interim” fix for the KC-46’s troubled remote vision system, and is moving toward finalizing the design of the “2.0” overhaul of the system. The Air Force is more focused on the 2.0 overhaul, and “we’ve completed nearly every aspect of the design”…