First Lt. Michael Seltzer, an F-16 pilot recently returning from a five-hour mission over Iraq with two bombs still onboard discovered a problem with his fighter’s landing gear. His emergency checklist procedure failed to correct the problem as he circled, getting ever lower on fuel. The Viper pilot was in luck because a KC-135 crew already airborne had some fuel to spare, enabling Seltzer to tank up and head toward Southwest Asia’s largest lake, where he jettisoned his bombs. (Read more here from Air Force journalist SrA. Kerry Solan-Johnson.)
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.