As of April 30, USAF had 323,889 active duty airmen (64,198 officers and 259,691 enlisted personnel), the Air Force Personnel Center announced May 28. This total includes 13,195 pilots, 4,207 navigators, and 1,251 air battle managers. Women comprise 19.6 percent of the active duty force. Overall, 60.6 percent of the force is married. Whites account for 73.7 percent of the force, blacks 14.7 percent, and Asians 2.5 percent. Hispanics/Latinos account for 9.5 percent, although this category is considered an ethnicity and not a race. USAF is still on a course to reduce it active duty end strength to about 316,000 personnel by the end of Fiscal 2009, even though service leaders would like to reverse the trend, contingent on funding. The Air Force also had 137,966 civilian employees as of April 30, with an average length of service of 15.5 years, AFPC 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.