The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center has created a partnership arrangement with Boeing on a system upgrade for USAF’s E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft fleet that lets the ALC technicians, working with L3 Communications personnel, perform the upgrades on the next eight aircraft. The entire Integrated Demand Assigned Multiple Access-Global Air Traffic Management—known as IDG—upgrade requires about 6,500 labor hours per aircraft, reports the Tinker Take-Off. The OCALC expects to reach agreements covering the remainder of the E-3 fleet.
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.