The Kaiserslautern Military Community Center project, overseen by the 435th Civil Engineer Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany, recently had a 15-ton dome lowered into place, completing one more segment of the 840,000 square feet of hotel, shops, base exchange, restaurants, and movie theater, scheduled to open in January 2007. The 350-bed hotel actually plans take its first guest in June 2006. Brig. Gen. Danny Gardner, US Air Forces in Europe Mission Support director, calls it a “little piece of the United States” to improve quality of life, but he adds that it is not intended to replace the benefit of exploring new places and trying native foods and services.
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.