Airmen with the 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston AFB, S.C., have begun shipping M1117 armored security vehicles to Southwest Asia for the Army. A C-17 carried the first load of them on a flight to the combat theater Oct. 24. The base took delivery of 82 ASVs earlier this month and will continue shipping them as part of DOD’s surge to supply them to deployed Army military police units. The ASV is an armored, four-wheel-drive vehicle with ballistic protection and a machine gun and grenade launcher mounted in a turret capable of traversing 360 degrees. Airmen from Charleston have also played a big role in transporting thousands of mine resistant ambush protected vehicles to Southwest Asia to give mounted ground forces there more protection against improved explosive devices. (Charleston report by A1C Melissa White)
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.