An Air Force KC-135 tanker crashed on Friday in northern Kyrgyzstan, announced officials with the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing at the Transit Center at Manas near Bishkek in the Central Asian nation. The status of the three crewmembers is unknown, they said in a release. Emergency response crews are on scene, they said. The tanker and crew are assigned to Manas, which is a major air hub for sustaining coalition operations in Afghanistan.
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.