Brig. Gen. Steven Kwast, commander of USAF’s 455th Air Expeditionary Wing in Afghanistan, in a videoconference with reporters Tuesday confirmed that the investigation team reviewing the April 8 crash of the CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft had destroyed the wreckage after getting “what they needed in order to do this investigation properly.” He said a decision on “the threat and the risk” would have been made by the investigation team to determine whether it was prudent to bring the “metal back home … [or] better just to destroy it there so it cannot be used against us.” There’s been at least one media report that brownout conditions likely caused the crash, but Kwast did not speculate about the outcome of the investigation, saying “that process is ongoing.” (The crash killed four and injured several others.)
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…