The 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron reached a milestone on Aug. 5 in Iraq when one of its C-130 transported the unit’s 200,000th passenger during a mission from Ali Base to Joint Base Balad. Lt. Col. Chris Cantu, commander of the 777th EAS, was the navigator for the flight and he and the other crew members presented Army Spc. Steven Nix, passenger 200K, with a flag, squadron coin, and a certificate to commemorate the milestone. Members of the 777th EAS, deployed from Little Rock AFB, Ark., are nearing the end of a two-month rotation to Balad. Most of the unit’s C-130 sorties carry between 30 and 40 people, and the crews average about six sorties per day, but a C-130 crew may move as many as 300 passengers per day. (Balad report by SSgt. Don Branum)
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.