MISSOULA, Mont. — A Montana company owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes was awarded a contract with the U.S. Air Force to supply fighter jet parts to Saudi Arabia.
The Missoulian reports the U.S. Defense Department announced the $559 million contract last week for S&K Aerospace, LLC to provide F-15 components to the Royal Saudi Air Force.
CEO Thomas Acevedo says the company plans to hire most of the workers for the contract in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but there may be new hires in the Montana corporate office as well.
The company is based in St. Ignatius on the Flathead Reservation, and it pays dividends back to the tribes each year.
The delivery brings the lab closer to conducting the first U.S. positioning, navigation and timing experiment in almost 50 years.
An Air Force official said the military must "automate more" in order to remain dominant in a world of advanced computing and quick decisions.
The Navy plans to deploy a carrier strike group with Project Overmatch products, namely advanced networking capabilities, later this year.
"If we're going to beat China, and we have to beat China in AI," CDAO Craig Martell said, "we have to find a way to label at scale."
Lt. Gen. John Shaw said this week there’s a growing need for on-demand launch capabilities that can be leveraged to replace or augment satellites.