Various news reports said union members were expected to vote Monday on a tentative agreement reached over the weekend with CSC Applied Technologies, which holds the aircraft maintenance contract at Vance AFB, Okla., that could end the two-week strike that prompted Air Education and Training Command to transfer some pilot training from Vance to other AETC bases. Oklahoma lawmakers are concerned that the strike could affect the viability of the base itself. A report by the Enid News said that if members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 898 voted in favor of the agreement, the striking workers could return to work today. However, a Vance spokesperson told the newspaper that a period of “reconstitution” would have to take place, noting that flying training operations would begin again “as soon as it is safe to do so.”
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.