Air Education and Training Command is considering switching from specialized pilot training back to generalized pilot training, Gen. Edward Rice, AETC boss, told reporters on Monday at AFA’s 2013 Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. “We are building something called the flight training master plan,” said Rice. “We’re looking at all of our flight training courses, and we’ll look at future requirements and make adjustments to how we train,” he said. Back in the 1990s, the Air Force had a generalized pilot training course, which pipelined all pilots through the same initial and advanced training. The Air Force then changed to specialized pilot training, where, after basic pilot training, pilots would go through a customized advanced training course specific to the operational aircraft they were intended to fly. There were both advantages and disadvantages to this change, said Rice. With the Air Force growing smaller, the command will consider whether it will change back to generalized pilot training, 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.