An Aircraft Investment Plan through 2040 reportedly submitted to Congress along with the Fiscal 2011 budget is not meant to be a definitive schedule, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. In an interview with the Daily Report Wednesday, Schwartz explained: “I think it is a plan for the department. It is not a contract. But I think it gives the Hill a sense of what the general themes are.” Schwartz specifically corrected one aspect of the plan, which asserts that an F-22 air superiority replacement would be required around 2025, versus a new bomber that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday will be along in “the late 2020s.” Schwartz said, “I think the Long Range Strike platform will certainly precede an F-22 replacement, in my view.” (Aircraft Investment Plan)
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.