News reports say that Montana residents are complaining about the switch for the Montana Air National Guard’s 120th Fighter Wing from the F-16 to the F-15 because the Eagles generate more noises. The wing has finally completed its transition, courtesy of BRAC 2005, and has picked up the pace of its training sorties, according to Maj. Rick Anderson. Anderson told news media there have been numerous noise complaints, but that the noise levels for the two fighters are similar. He believes folks got used to almost no flying out of the unit during the swtichover, but that the unit now has its pilots trained and has returned to a normal training pace. (There are some folks around Davis-Monthan and Luke Air Force Base’s in Arizona and Eglin AFB, Fla., who might love to switch to the F-15 vice the new F-35 which they claim is much louder.) (Montana’s News Station report and Billings Gazette report)
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.