p, .More than 30 Arizona Air National Guardsmen, five F-16s, and Singaporean student pilots from the 162nd Fighter Wing in Tucson visited Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, in August to help train Singaporeans in air-to-air combat maneuvers, according to a Mountain Home release. “Back home, it’s very hard getting every student the required amount of flying hours, so we bring them up here and fly as red-versus-blue air forces,” said Lt. Col. Julian Pacheco, Tucson’s 152nd Fighter Squadron assistant director of operations. Tucson is home to Air Guard-led F-16 fighter pilot training. Another advantage of spending time at Mountain Home is the ability of the Singaporean F-16 pilots to train with the base’s F-15s, including Singaporean F-15SGs flown by their countrymen who train at the Idaho air base, states the Aug. 27 release. “This is a huge benefit because it’s their own countrymen they are training and fighting against, who fly a completely different aircraft,” said Pacheco (Mountain Home report by SrA. Benjamin Sutton)
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.