The US Attorney’s office last month reached a $15 million settlement with Dynamics Research Corporation over a lawsuit dealing with the company’s work on the Air Force’s theater battle management core systems program. Two of the company’s former corporate officers, Paul Arguin and Victor Garber, pleaded guilty in 2002 to running a kickback scheme from 1997 to 2000 that resulted in false payments to themselves for computer equipment and services provided to the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., for the TBMCS program. While both men received prison sentences and hefty fines, the US Attorney still went after DRC under the false claims act and for breach of contract. DRC has maintained that it was unaware of the former officers’ misconduct. (Hanscom report by Peter J. Camp) (DRC release)
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.