Airmen among Victims of Deadly Helicopter Crash: The Defense Department Aug. 11 announced that three airmen were among the 30 US military personnel and eight Afghans killed in the Aug. 6 crash of an Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Wardak Province, Afghanistan. The airmen were TSgt. John Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, Fla.; TSgt. Daniel Zerbe, 28, of York, Pa.; and SSgt. Andrew Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, Calif. All were assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command’s 24th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Field, N.C. In addition to the airmen, 22 Navy SEALs, five Army aircrew, and eight Afghan soldiers perished, making it the single most deadly incident for US forces in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war in 2001. Continue
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.