Airmen
of the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB, Ga., flew two HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters and one HC-130P tanker aircraft on a 10-hour mission April 25 to help saves the lives of six Cubans in distress at sea in the Gulf of Mexico after fleeing the communist nation. The Panamanian-flagged tanker ship Eos discovered the Cubans and pulled them from the waters, officials from Moody said in an April 30 release. At the request of the Coast Guard, the Moody element then deployed to retrieve the Cubans from the tanker, which was located about 260 miles south of New Orleans, to bring them to a medical facility in the city.
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.