Air 
Force Reserve Command’s 911th Airlift Wing in Pittsburgh will retain a force of eight C-130Hs through Fiscal 2014, announced Air Force officials in a release on Wednesday. This is one of the service’s moves to meet the congressional mandate to maintain a force of at least 358 intratheater transports in Fiscal 2013 by retaining 32 additional airplanes—all legacy C-130s—that the service had intended to retire. “Although we were required to retain aircraft only through the end of this fiscal year, we extended the aircraft through Fiscal 2014 to allow time to complete additional analysis and to coordinate with our stakeholders,” said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. The Air Force will reassess its force structure as it builds its Fiscal 2015 budget proposal, states the release. In addition to Pittsburgh, which was set to lose its C-130 flying mission, the Air National Guard’s 109th AW in Schenectady, N.Y., and 139th AW in St Joseph, Mo., will each retain two extra C-130s as backup assets through Fiscal 2014. And, these ANG units will each keep one extra C-130 in backup status: 123rd AW in Louisville, Ky.; 130th AW in Charleston, W.V.; and 189th AW at Little Rock AFB, Ark. So will these AFRC units: 440th AW at Pope Field, N.C.; 910th AW at Youngstown ARS, Ohio; and 914th AW at Niagara Falls ARS, N.Y. In Fiscal 2014, the Air Force said it would restore AFRC’s 934th AW in Minneapolis and its eight C-130s. See the release for the full list of additional Fiscal 2014 changes. (See also Airlift Working Group Findings Coming.)
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.