Air Force seeks new ideas for support missions

The Air Force is looking for technologies that could help improve the service’s ability to conduct combat support operations, according to an Aug. 21 Defense Department notice published on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site. The notice said the service’s Agile Combat Support Modernization Analysis Working Group is seeking ideas from industry and academia to offset limitations on support operations Air Force officials anticipate between 2010 and 2035. These limitations include obstacles typically associated with military work in austere environments worldwide, potential force reductions and budget shortfalls, the notice said. The Air Force is particularly interested in ideas that would reduce the need for airlift in and out of future theaters, and technologies capable of cutting the number of personnel needed to initiate and support military operations. “Present combat support resources are aging and are quickly becoming obsolete,” the notice states. Officials in the Air Force’s Agile Combat Support Modernization Analysis Working Group will roll potential technologies into the deliberations on the service’s six-year spending plan starting in fiscal 2010, the document said.