Need an air traffic management component for a particular aircraft, go online with Electronic Systems Center’s new automated Web-based shopping service. ESC’s Global Air Traffic Management Division at Hanscom AFB, Mass., created an online catalog of commercial-off-the-shelf ATM components that enable aircraft acquisition offices to select specific components they need and click a button to place the order. ESC officials say, the catalog approach cuts the acquisition timeline from months to weeks, eliminating the need for some 40 platform acquisition offices to conduct their own source selection efforts.
The Air Force’s nascent KC-Z program, aimed at developing a next-generation family of systems for aerial refueling, will look to launch its analysis-of-alternatives study in 2024, years earlier than originally planned. Originally, the analysis of alternatives for KC-Z was set for “maybe in the 2030s,” Paul Waugh, program executive officer…