Lt. Gen. Mike Moeller, deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs, said the Total Force Task Force is unlike anything the Air Staff has done before. “We stand up these steering groups and planning teams and these different entities and they look at specific problems and then they go away,” Moeller told the Daily Report in a late March interview. He said he’s “not seen such a level of effort” before where the Air Force Secretary and Chief of Staff “have essentially hired three two-stars for a six-month period to come in and lead this.” Moeller said his job is to “clear any bureaucratic obstacles” for the three TF2 directors. They are: Maj. Gen. John Posner, director of global power programs in the Air Force Secretariat’s acquisition office; Maj. Gen. Brian Meenan, mobilization assistant to the commander of Air Mobility Command; and Maj. Gen. Mark Bartman, the Ohio National Guard’s assistant adjutant general-air. Each has been assigned to the Pentagon for six months, while the task force studies the appropriate capabilities mix for the Air Force’s three components going forward, said Moeller. They have a core staff of 25 to 30 personnel who are working full-time on the issue, and a larger “matrix organization” that they can tap into when necessary, he said.
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.