The years of effort by US Air Force airmen to rebuild an Iraqi Air Force continue to show results. Among the latest, 28 new second lieutenants graduated from the Iraqi Air Force Academy, including nine headed to pilot training. And, just last week, the first Iraqi instructor pilot flew an Iraqi student pilot for the first time. Air Force military training instructors, volunteers from Lackland AFB, Tex., are training Iraqi warrant officers. Last week, Brig. Gen. Robert Allardice, leader of USAF’s Iraqi effort, said the number of sorties flown by the fledgling Iraqi Air Force is growing at a fast rate and it could extend to kinetic weapons next year.
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.