Officials at Kirtland AFB, N.M., ceremoniously cut the ribbon at Building 950, site of the 58th Special Operations Wing’s new HC/MC-130J aircraft simulator. Lt. Col. Regan Patrick, 58th Training Squadron commander, called the simulator “a tremendous addition” to the wing’s training mission. “We intend to use it extensively to meet the needs of tomorrow’s warfighters,” he said. The simulator will enable the wing to train pilots, combat systems officers, and loadmasters “in an environment very much like the actual airplane” and “at substantially lower cost,” said Lt. Col. Alex Carothers, the 58 SOW’s HC/MC-130J program manager. This includes activities such as night-vision-goggle low-level operations, air-to-air refueling, and no-light landings,” he said. The ribbon-cutting took place on Jan. 19. The Air Force’s first MC-130J special-mission aircraft entered the inventory last September. (Kirtland report by John Cochran)
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.