Beginning this year, the Air Force tightened tuition assistance criteria to mandate that airmen maintain a grade point average of 2.0 or higher to continue receiving funds toward an undergraduate university degree. “If it is not maintained, your records will be locked, tuition assistance will be denied, and you will have to pay to take classes to bring your GPA up,” said Alice Patton, training and education chief at Nellis AFB, Nev., in a Jan. 8 base release. Graduate students must meet higher GPA standards than undergraduates, maintaining at least a 3.0 GPA to continue receiving assistance, states the release. Under the new criteria, airmen keeping up those grades will be eligible for $4,500 a year or up to $250 per credit hour. “Otherwise, airmen would just be wasting their time as well as Air Force funds,” said Patton. (Nellis report by A1C Monet Villacorte)
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.