Two Air Force C-130s and more than 65 airmen flew to Kurmitola AB, Bangladesh, to share airlift disaster-response expertise with Bangladeshi aircrews, maintainers, and load-riggers during Exercise Cope South 2012. The five-day event runs through April 26. “In our country, we practice more with paratroopers” than humanitarian cargo, explained Bangladeshi airlift commander Maj. Arman Chokldhuvy. “We want to experience how the US Air Force flies in our terrain and use it to help guide us to be safer in low-level flying during airdrops and deliveries,” he added. The C-130s are flying with a Bangladeshi An-32 cargo aircraft during the exercise drills. The US participants are from Air National Guard units in Georgia and Kentucky and Active Duty wings in Japan. (Kurmitola report by 1st Lt. Cammie Quinn)
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.