The Air Force has moved forward on its plan to reinvent the Air Intelligence Agency under the expanded Air Staff A2, now covering all intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance matters. The Air Force revealed the plan to change the signals-intelligence-focused AIA into the Air Force ISR Agency earlier this year—initially saying the change would take effect in March, now it’s set for June 8—and move it from Air Combat Command to the A2. The agency, based at Lackland AFB, Tex., now will comprise the 70th Intelligence Wing and Air Force Crytologic Office at Ft. Meade, Md.; National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio; and Air Force Technical Applications Center at Lackland. The Air Force Information Operations Center at Lackland already has gone over to 8th Air Force for the new Cyber Command. Agency commander Maj. Gen. John Koziol says, “Air Force ISR is on the move, and this is an important step forward for worldwide ISR operations and how we forge the way to seamlessly integrate both tactical and national ISR operations.”
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.