Lockheed Martin and the New York Air National Guard celebrated the initial operational capability of the Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod at a ceremony in Syracuse, N.Y. on April 21. Local officials and members of the 174th Fighter Wing—the first USAF unit to achieve Sniper IOC—were on hand to extol the pod, which already has seen combat action on F-16s and F-15Es. The system provides target coordinates for precision-guided munitions and offers a non-traditional intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capability.
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.