The 2,000th security forces airman recently graduated the Air Force Expeditionary Center’s specialized Phoenix Raven aircraft-protection course at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. Trained to defend aircraft and crews on the ground in high-threat environments, Raven teams undergo two weeks of focused training including unarmed combat, explosives-detection, diplomatic-overwatch, and anti-hijacking tactics, among others. Since the Air Mobility Command course stood up in 1997, “we haven’t lost a single aircraft” over the course of thousands of missions “throughout the world,” said retired Col. Lawrence Lane, former AMC security forces director. He added, “We also haven’t had a single aircrew member killed or wounded” under the protection of a Raven team. The Phoenix Raven course gives security forces airmen the skills they need to help them make “level-headed decisions . . . in austere environments, under intense pressure,” said Lt. Col. Rhett Boldenow, 421st Combat Training Squadron commander. (McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst release)
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.