The Florida Air National Guard plans a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 1 to formally open the new state of the art, $30 million air operations center at Tyndall AFB, Fla. The ANG’s 601st Air Operations Group will manage the 37,000-square-foot facility, dubbed America’s AOC, which provides air tasking orders and strategic direction for the Continental US NORAD region. Switching from the Southeast Air Defense Sector mission to the AOC mission was the culmination of about four years work.
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.