AMC Airmen Get Lighter Load: Air Mobility Command’s airmen participating in the latest air and space expeditionary force rotation (AEFs 9 and 10) get to travel about 50 pounds lighter as part of phase 2 of the new mobility bag pre-positioning initiative. The program lets the airmen in the current AEFs travel to Southwest Asia with only their gas masks, the other standard gear—general purpose equipment (A-Bag at 14 pounds), cold weather gear (B-Bag at 17 pounds), and chemical warfare gear (C-Bag at 19 pounds)—already is in place in SWA. USAF officials believe the bag drop effort will save about $32 million a year in airlift costs.
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.