The Air Force and Lockheed Martin are negotiating the terms of the contract for the next production cycle, Lot 8, of the stealthy JASSM cruise missile. In a written response to a query, Air Force officials told the Daily Report that Lockheed presented its Lot 8 proposal in December and the service anticipates a contract award by the end of February. The exact number of missiles built during Lot 8 is part of the ongoing discussions, said the officials. Under the $107 million Lot 7 contract signed in June 2008, Lockheed is supplying 111 JASSMs. That order brought the total JASSM buy so far to more than 1,000 units. Beyond Lot 8, the Air Force has already announced its intent to let the Lot 9 production contract by early 2011 for up to 391 more JASSMs, either in the baseline or extended-range configurations.
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…