The air and ground crews of 48th Fighter Wing at RAF, Lakenheath, England, are ready to employ the Air Force’s latest munition—the GBU-39 or Small Diameter Bomb. Munitions maintainers getting schooled in the new weapon have marveled at how easy it is to work with. The aircrews began training with simulated bombs last month and will continue to use the dummy bombs until they deploy to Southwest Asia later this year. Lt. Col. Will Reese, 494th Fighter Squadron commander, says, “The folks that designed [the SDB] and its interface with the F-15E certainly did their homework.”
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.