US airmen came from Europe and JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., to meet with Angolan and Zambian airmen for African Partnership Flight Angola 2014 in Luanda, Angola. Nearly 200 airmen participated in the weeklong event, which concluded on March 28, according to a US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa release. They discussed topics like disaster-relief operations, mission planning, and equipment preparation for airlift. “We chose to partner with Angola and Zambia for this African Partnership Flight to bring Southern African Development Committee nations together, and to build strong ties between our air forces,” said Lt. Col. Pete Larsen, APF mission commander. A C-130J flown in from Ramstein AB, Germany, served as a learning tool, states the release. APF has helped “us understand how each air force responds and allows us to work together to prepare for future disasters,” said Lt. Joe Kamalata of the Zambian air force. The US military launched the APF initiative in 2012 as a means of outreach on the African continent. (Luanda report by Capt. Sybil Taunton)
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.