Air Force Cyber Command headquarters will have a numbered air force designated 24th Air Force, four wings, and more than 65 squadrons collectively, including units from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command, USAF announced March 14 in a document describing the plans for the new major command’s structure in the most detail to date. (wiring chart PDF) USAF says it remains on track to declare the command ready for initial operations on Oct. 1, despite the fact that no permanent location will have been assigned by then. And, for the interim, the new command will remain at Barksdale AFB, La., where it has been since last September. Further, the new command will be distributed, with positions to be spread among numerous bases. Two of the wings will be new: an electronic warfare wing and cyberspace wing. They will join an information operations wing (formerly the Air Force Information Operations Center) and the 67th Network Warfare Wing. Since USAF has never stood up a command like this, it is being very deliberate and careful as it moves forward said Maj. Gen. William Lord, AFCYBER (Provisional) commander. “Some of these things may change, but this is what we’re looking at right now,” he said.
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.