The Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 137th Airlift Wing in Oklahoma City is trading its C-130 tactical transports for KC-135 aerial refuelers, courtesy of BRAC 2005. The Norman Transcript reports that the 137th will join forces with Air Force Reserve Command’s 507th Air Refueling Wing at Tinker AFB, Okla., to share operation and maintenance of 12 KC-135s—becoming the first Total Force Integration association of the two air reserve components. It will take about two years for the 137th AW to totally switch from the C-130 to the KC-135, but the unit already has eight airmen in training for the tanker mission at Altus AFB, Okla.
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.