Air 
Force Reserve Command will add seven new units and make additional force structure changes, including inactivating several units, based on the language in the Fiscal 2013 defense authorization act, announced command officials. The legislation became law in early January. “These force structure changes will take place over the next three years and are necessary to help meet Budget Control Act of 2011 resource levels,” said Maj. Gen. Craig Gourley, AFRC’s vice commander, in a Jan. 25 release (with full list of force structure changes). AFRC will stand up five squadrons as classic associate units: the 14th Intelligence Squadron at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; 28th IS at Hurlburt Field, Fla.; 37th IS at Fort Meade, Md.; 41st IS at Offut AFB, Neb.; and 960th Network Warfare Squadron at JBSA-Lackland, Tex. It will also activate the 655th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group at Wright-Patterson and the 960th Cyber Operations Group at Lackland, according to the release. Among the other changes, AFRC will inactivate: the 917th Fighter Group at Barksdale AFB, La., 13th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale AFB, Calif.; and Band of the US Air Force Reserve at Robins AFB, Ga. (See also Tactically Minded.)
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.