Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, top uniformed acquisition officer at the U.S. Air Force, has said the service branch may pick an industry team for the T-X trainer aircraft replacement program ahead of contract award if Congress extends a continuing resolution beyond Dec. 8, Defense News reported Tuesday.

“We will look at options to see if we can award with a delayed start,” Bunch said Tuesday at the Air Force Association’s annual conference.

“There are ways, we have done it before, when you award a contract and you delay the start of the contract for a few months,” he added.

His statement came a day after Saab announced plans to set up a production facility in the U.S. for a trainer aircraft the Sweden-based company and its partner Boeing proposed for the T-X program.

Other industry teams vying for the T-X contract include Lockheed Martin and Korean Aerospace Industries; and Leonardo DRS.

The military branch intends to award the T-X contract by the end of 2017 and expects to spend approximately $2 billion on the program in the next five years.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said earlier that a long-term CR could delay the contract award for the T-X program that seeks to replace the service’s fleet of T-38 planes.

The new Senate-passed defense spending package contains a bill that would fund projects to modernize government information technology systems.

A press release published Monday on Sen. Jerry Moran’s (R-Kansas) website said the upper chamber inserted the Modernizing Government Technology Act as an amendment to the  National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2018.

The NDAA was approved by the Senate through a 89-8 vote Monday and would authorize $700 billion in Defense Department spending.

MGT Act would create IT working capital funds at 24 federal government agencies and permit the agencies to finance IT modernization efforts using savings achieved through upgraded IT systems.

The legislation would also establish a centralized modernization fund within the Treasury Department for the head of the General Services Administration to distribute across agencies following consultation with a board of federal IT professionals.

Sens. Moran and Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) introduced the MGT Act with support from Sens. Steve Daines (R-Montana) and Mark Warner (D-Virginia) as well as Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Gerry Connolly (D-VA).

The Senate on Monday approved through an 89-8 vote a bill that would authorize $700 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2018, Defense News reported Monday.

The FY 2018 National Defense Authorization Act would allocate $640 billion for the Defense Department’s base budget and $60 billion in war funds.

The legislation exceeds the Trump administration’s $603 billion budget request for defense and reflects a $91 billion increase over the cap established by the Budget Control Act for base funds.

The bill’s approval in the upper chamber came two months after the House passed its $696.5 billion defense policy bill for fiscal 2018.

The Senate’s NDAA version would authorize the procurement of 10 more Boeing-built F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft, 24 additional Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets and five more ships for the U.S. Navy.

The measure would also create a new chief information warfare officer at DoD and oppose the creation of a new space-focused service branch proposed in the House bill.

The Washington Post also reported that the Senate bill would ban the use of software from Russian company Kaspersky Lab across federal agencies, military branches and government contractors.

Several proposed amendments to the defense policy bill failed to get votes on the Senate floor and these include proposals to increase sanctions against North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile tests and the president’s proposed ban on transgender troops, the report added.

The First Responder Network Authority Board has approved a fiscal year 2018 budget of $73.5 million to fund FirstNet’s efforts to deploy, operate and manage a nationwide public safety broadband network.

FirstNet said Thursday the amount is 13 percent lower than the agency’s current funding level as a result of its public-private partnership with AT&T.

The budget also covers customer outreach, product marketing and development activities meant to help ensure the network will address current and future needs of first responders.

FirstNet and AT&T will work together over the next fiscal year to initiate the radio access network build-out for participating state and territories; test current and future network features; and deliver applications through an open application ecosystem, among others.

Participation under FirstNet is optional and 20 states and territories have accepted the authority’s network build-out plan to date.

FirstNet is an independent organization within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that was established to deliver a nationwide public safety broadband network for emergency responders.