While the United States has made it clear that it possesses offensive cyber capabilities to retaliate against cyber attacks, NATO “is not there” yet, said Hans Binnendijk, SAIS senior fellow, at AFA’s 2013 Air and Space Conference on Tuesday. The alliance is still “thinking about defense,” he said. Though the alliance is focusing heavily on cyber threats, cyber attacks would probably not invoke NATO’s collective defense clause, he said. However, “much of it depends on the nature of the cyber attack,” said Binnendijk.
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.