Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley told reporters this morning at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando that the service’s new long-range strike aircraft will be the “backbone of the bomber force.” With long-range strike and F-22 fleet size hanging on it, the new program better work. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne added that the Air Force is going to try to get initial operating capability on the new bomber by 2018, but he acknowledges, “We know that will be a struggle.”
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.