President Obama has nominated Maj. Gen. Thomas Travis to receive a third star for his new assignment as the Air Force’s surgeon general, announced the Pentagon. Travis has been USAF’s deputy surgeon general since November 2010. He’ll replace Lt. Gen. Charles Green, who’s served as surgeon general since August 2009. Also in the Pentagon’s June 8 release was word that the President has nominated Maj. Gen. Darren McDew for appointment to the rank of lieutenant general for his new assignment as commander of 18th Air Force, Air Mobility Command’s sole warfighting numbered air force, at Scott AFB, Ill. McDew, Air Force District of Washington commander at JB Andrews, Md., since December 2010, would replace Lt. Gen. Mark Ramsay, who’s been 18th AF boss since September 2011. Ramsay is moving on to become the Joint Staff’s director of force structure, resources, and assessment (J-8), states the 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.