Kandahar Rigging for Surge: 
A C-130J transport operating with the 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron (activated last winter) from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, on Jan. 27 dropped 56 containerized delivery systems full of supplies over three different drop zones within that nation, setting a single-day, single-aircraft record for the unit. This mission was a test to gauge how well the unit will be able to execute greater numbers of airdrops in coming months to support the continuing US troop surge in Afghanistan. The Army is establishing a CDS rigging facility at Kandahar as part of the surge that will enable CDS bundles to be built and loaded on the C-130Js at Kandahar vice the aircraft having to fly to Bagram for this. “We’re expecting to see about a 250 percent increase in number of airdrops we can support here,” said Maj. Joe Framptom, a 772nd EAS operations officer. (Kandahar report by SSgt. Angelique N. Smythe)
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.