Two Air Force Space Command space operations squadrons, the 2nd SOPS and 19th SOPS at Schriever AFB, Colo., took charge of the new GPS satellite shortly after its launch March 24. “We’re getting ready to provide its combat effects to warfighters as soon as possible,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Schiess, 2nd SOPS operations officer. The GPS IIR-20(M) spacecraft is the 34th satellite in the GPS constellation, with 31 of those 34 currently transmitting navigation and timing signals to users. AFSPC had planned to launch the satellite in June 2008, but there was a fault with the 40-second timer that triggers separation of the third stage booster that Air Force and contractor engineers had to resolve first, according to Lt. Col. John Wagner, mission director with Space and Missile Systems Center’s Launch and Range Systems Wing at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. (Schriever 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.