Air Force Special Operations Command’s 8th Special Operations Squadron has returned to Florida after a Southwest Asia stint in which the airmen flew their last missions in the MC-130E Combat Talon I—ending 41 years of active-duty service for the aircraft. The squadron flew the Talon I on the 1970 assault on the Son Tay prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam, participated in the 1980 Desert One hostage rescue attempt in Iran, transported Gen. Manuel Noriega from Panama following Operation Just Cause, and made multiple deployments for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Read more here.) Now the unit will transition to AFSOC’s new CV-22, starting in September.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.