Two Iraqi citizens have completed the Aircraft and Munitions Maintenance Officers Course at Sheppard AFB, Tex., making them the first maintenance officers for Iraq’s nascent Air Force. (The Air Force has withheld their names and ranks for security reasons.) One of the officers commented on the children in Texas that he saw playing and smiling, and said that the Iraqi people need American help to give Iraqi children “back their smile.”
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.