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USAF photo by SSgt. Stacy L. Pearsall

The Air Force will procure six KC-130J Hercules aircraft, modified to replace HC-130 and MC-130 aircraft for combat search and rescue and special operations forces under a new contract award to Lockheed Martin. Here, a Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter approaches a USAF HC-130P Hercules aircraft from the New York Air National Guard's 106th Rescue Wing Gabreski Airport, N.Y., for aerial refueling in October 2005 over Djibouti during Operation Enduring Freedom.

Verbatim

To Be Clear
“Just like in my business, the issues that go badly get all of the attention. I think, to be clear with you, there are many things that are managed well every day in the Air Force.”
—John Young, Pentagon acquisition executive, speaking to defense reporters on the state of Air Force acquisition, Washington, D.C., Nov. 20, 2008.

Verbatim

F-22 Options
“They have two choices. On January 21st, they can obligate the $90 million and decide there's some chance ... that they will buy the airplanes and they'd rather preserve the option to buy [them] at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Or, they could chose not to obligate the $90 million and accept that they still have a decision to be made between then and March 1st. But that decision may cost the taxpayer more money.”
—DOD acquisition czar John Young on how releasing only $50 million of the $140 million authorized by Congress to keep the F-22 production line active until March 2009 still preserves options for the new Administration, Capitol Hill, Nov. 19, 2008.