Air 
Force Reserve Command pararescuemen joined Royal Canadian Air Force search-and-rescue technicians for a week of SAR and parachute training in the Canadian northwest. “The purpose was to work with our Canadian brethren, the SAR techs [and] see how they do business,” said MSgt. Wes Hufnagel, non-commissioned officer in charge of the 308th Rescue Squadron at Patrick AFB, Fla. In addition to combined SAR activities in Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, the crews practiced confined-space parachute landings in Comox, British Columbia, during the July 15-22 exercise, according to an Aug. 6 Patrick release. “We don’t normally do that on home station, so it was definitely good to get exposed to that,” said Hufnagel. Jumping from an RCAF CC-115 Buffalo, the Patrick airmen tried the SAR tech’s newly developed “tree suits,” which are designed to protect against injury in wooded landing zones. (Comox report by SSgt. Anna-Marie Wyant)
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.