The Air Force has put the 480th Intelligence Wing, located at Langley AFB, Va., under the umbrella of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency, headquartered at Lackland AFB, Tex., with formal realignment of units to take place by March 1. The 480th IW was part of 8th Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale AFB, La. Now, as part of AFISRA, it falls under the Air Staff A2, Lt. Gen. David Deptula. Last year, the Air Force announced its plan to transform ISR, elevating the A2 to three-star level and restructuring the Air Intelligence Agency into the AFISRA as a field operating agency under the A2. At that time, AFISRA comprised the 70th IW and Air Force Cryptologic Office at Ft. Meade, Md.; National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; and Air Force Technical Applications Center at Patrick AFB, Fla. The 480th IW, which is the service’s lead for Distributed Common Ground System operations, imagery, and other intel products needed for combat planning, will comprise the 497th Intelligence Group, Langley; 548th IG, Beale AB, Calif.; 692nd IG, Hickam AFB, Hawaii; 693rd IG, Ramstein AB, Germany; and a new group to be formed at Osan AB, South Korea. Deptula says the realignment of the 480th IW will “optimize DCGS as a global net-centric weapon system.” (AFISRA report by SSgt. Kristine Dreyer)
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.