There won’t be a major command for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance or for electronic warfare, but a combined numbered Air Force is a possibility, Air Staff requirements director Maj. Gen. David Scott said Tuesday at an Association of Old Crows meeting in Washington. He acknowledged that a recent ISR summit decided USAF doesn’t have the manpower to create another major command at this time. (It is still working on Air Force Global Strike Command.) As for EW, he said a “single command” that would unify and harmonize capabilities and requirements has been looked at, but he speculated that it would not necessarily fix what he called the “gaps and seams” in existing capabilities. “I don’t see us going with an EW command. I don’t see us doing an ISR Majcom.” (An earlier ISR summit report concluded there would not be either an ISR Majcom or NAF.)
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.