The 38th Engineering Installation Group at Tinker AFB, Okla., last month became the 38th Cyberspace Engineering Group and is now part of the newly activated 24th Air Force under Air Force Space Command, USAF’s lead organization for cyber operations. The 38th CEG will be responsible for planning, engineering, and installing cyberspace-capable computer and communications systems at Air Force installations worldwide. The unit now falls under 24th AF’s 688th Information Operations Wing. It was formerly under the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom AFB, Mass., a component of Air Force Materiel Command. Col. Robert Skinner, 688th IOW commander, said cyberspace is not just a mission, but rather also “a place” that must be built and dominated like any potential battleground. “There’s no unit I would rather have build that dominance, that place, than the individuals sitting here,” he said of the 38th CEG. (Tinker report by Howdy Stout)
The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc. and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems matching $17.7 million contracts for an "Off-Board Sensing Station,” which is an unmanned aircraft that would extend a manned fighter’s sensing range and also potentially carry additional weapons for that aircraft. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts…