Air Education and Training Command has issued a draft environmental impact statement on the three proposed locations for USAF’s new common battlefield airmen training center. AETC plans to consolidate similar training for all manner of battlefield airmen, those airmen whose primary duties put them on the ground, often with land or special operations forces, into a single schoolhouse it expects to open in 2011. The command has scheduled public hearings for the three locations: Arnold AFB, Tenn. (July 10), Barksdale AFB, La. (June 26), and Moody AFB, Ga. (July 12). You can find the addresses for the meetings and the 572-page draft EIS here.
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.