A July 9 US airstrike in Afghanistan killed a senior leader of the Tariq Gidar Group responsible for multiple attacks on targets in Pakistan. The US Forces-Afghanistan strike on Islamic State-Khorasan Province Members in Nangarhar Province killed Umar Khalifa, the mastermind behind a January 2016 attack on Bacha Khan University, a September 2015 attack on Badaber Air Force Base, and a December 2014 attack on a school in Peshawar that killed more than 130 children, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement.
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.