USAF awarded Lockheed Martin a $589 million contract to be the weapons systems integrator to “standardize, modernize, sustain, and transform” the Air Force’s 20 worldwide Air and Space Operations Centers. Lockheed must turn the AOC’s 48 discrete systems into one integrated enterprise by August 2010, according to a company press release.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.