Red Horse civil engineers completed a new crew-prep facility for the 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. “The new facility is right on the ramp, closer to the aircraft, and closer to the Contingency Aeromedical Staging Facility,” said 455th EAES Commander Lt. Col. Carla Marcinek in Bagram’s Oct. 8 release. “This means we can work more efficiently, we can respond faster, and ultimately that translates to better patient care for our wounded,” she added. Bagram officials held the facility’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on Oct. 6. The new building is twice as large as the previous structure, states the release. It holds enough flight-ready medical equipment and supplies to accommodate transient crews from places like Kandahar Airfield as well as the 455th EAES’ nurses and medics. Civil engineers from the 457th Expeditionary RED HORSE Squadron designed the facility, working closely with members of the 455th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron to cut construction cost, according to the release. (Bagram report by Capt. Raymond Geoffroy)
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.