Pictured is a U.S. Air Force photo of a C-17 from the 62d Airlift Wing taking off on Jan. 8th at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. during the Kraken Reach exercise.

The Air Force wants companies to submit ideas by July 17 on the service's planned Next Generation Airlift (NGAL) platform. In a Monday business notice, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center's (AFLCMC) mobility aircraft directorate said that it is "in the early stages of identifying the requirements" for NGAL and is seeking "to identify and mature the technologies and concepts necessary to field a platform that offers significant advancements in capacity, range, efficiency, connectivity, survivability, and operational flexibility over…