The Defense Department has announced that Hurlburt Field, Fla., is among the top five defense facilities that will receive the 2009 Commander in Chiefs Installation Excellence Award; Hurlburt plans to use the money that comes with the distinction to upgrade a sports field. ¦ Reports on the pilot test programs run at Peterson AFB, Colo., and Tinker AFB, Okla., to analyze facility workspace under the service’s Space Optimization and Utilization Initiative, or M-6 initiative, which aims to reduce real property square footage and associated maintenance costs by 20 percent each by 2020, are due at headquarters Air Force this week. (Peterson report by Thea Skinner) ¦ According to an April 22 release, Space and Missile Systems Center officials broke ground in late March on a new West Coast command transmitter site at Pillar Point AFS in Half Moon Bay, Calif., to replace one fielded in the 1960s; the Air Force expects the new equipment, including two new 4.7-meter directional antennas and associated 28-foot radomes, to be supporting range safety systems at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., starting in August 2010.
Sustainment of the F-35 is rapidly becoming the most profitable part of the program, as growing numbers of jets, bases and depots drive a greater demand for parts and services, top Lockheed Martin officials said in an April 20 corporate earnings call. The comments come against a backdrop of criticism…