Pentagon leadership has entered the intratheater air debate between the Army and the Air Force and has directed the two services to develop a plan for writing joint requirements for a fixed-wing aircraft to ferry troops and equipment in theater, according to Army officials.

The Army and Air Force chiefs of staff are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding this week that will govern a 90-day exploration into the topic, Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt, Army Aviation Task Force director, said today during a media round-table at the Association of the U.S. Army's annual aviation conference.

Accordingly, MOU discussions will pave the way for the services to sign a memorandum of agreement that will spell out how the services will look at forming a joint program office and set of requirements, Mundt added.

Pentagon direction comes as the services have been working separate but similar efforts -- the Army calling it the “Future Cargo Aircraft” and the Air Force calling it the “Light Cargo Aircraft.”

The debate between the services on the issue has heated up in recent months and become a roles-and-mission debate.

“There is nobody better at delivering people and cargo than the United States Air Force to the [Aerial Port of Debarkation] in theater,” Mundt said. “We only have one word: we call it  'intratheater lift.' So there are people out there that go, 'intratheater lift, that's the Air Force, [the Army] can't do that.' . . . We are doing it today.”

Mundt explained that the Air Force delivers the cargo and personnel to the Aerial Port of Debarkation, or primary port of entry for all deploying personnel, and it is then the Army's job to transport the load the “last tactical mile.”

“The Air Force delivers to the APOD. Unless they change doctrine -- how they do business -- that's where it's going to stop,” Mundt told reporters.

So from that point on, Mundt explained that the Army can transport the troops and equipment by ground, and risk the threat of improvised explosive devices, or transport it via air.

Accordingly, the Army's requirement for an FCA fleet -- expected to be a commercially available, Federal Aviation Administration-certified aircraft to be used for logistical resupply, casualty evacuation, troop movement, airdrop operations, humanitarian assistance and homeland security support -- has been approved by the Army Requirements Oversight Council and Joint Requirements Oversight Council.

Mundt said the Army will need 145 FCA but an Air Force analysis of alternatives, following the MOA, could determine that the Air Force can expand its mission and transport the load the last tactical mile. If the Air Force mission expands, the Army will need to reevaluate its requirement for the 145 aircraft.

Additionally, the recent MOU decision by the Office of the Secretary of Defense will further delay the Army's FCA solicitation.

In August, the Army issued the draft request for proposals and a formal RFP was expected to follow in mid-October.

However, the Army was unable to issue the RFP until Ken Krieg, the Pentagon's acquisition executive, approved the FCA acquisition strategy.

Paul Bogosian, the Army's program executive officer for aviation, told reporters today that OSD was concerned that the Army would purchase FCA and a year later the Air Force would want to have a program approved to purchase the exact same aircraft.

Bogosian said OSD's position is that the two services should ask for the capability together. “Decide what you can do together. If you're heading down the same road, don't miss the opportunity just because your not seeing eye-to-eye.'” he said.

To date, the “general capability gap” on which the Air Force is basing its intratheater airlifter work is spelled out in an internal service initial capabilities document, which the Air Force Requirements Oversight Council approved Nov. 18.

The AFROC decision clears the way for the Air Force to begin moving closer to launching a formal LCA program and allows the service to begin a number of studies aimed at examining the intratheater platform gap, including a Capabilities-Based Assessment (CBA) .