About 150 airmen from US Air Forces in Europe were in Iceland earlier this month with personnel from the US Navy and Canadian, Danish, and Norwegian militaries to take part in exercise Northern Viking 2008. Held Sept. 1-6 at Keflavik, the participants practiced supporting the defense of the island nation. “The exercise is a series of combined air operations, which include high-value defense, offensive, and defensive air operation scenarios,” said Lt. Col. Michael King, 404th Air Expeditionary Group commander. He added, “Although US forces no longer have a permanent presence in Iceland, it is still in NATO’s best interest to ensure Iceland’s continued peace and security.” Among the vast array of hardware assembled for the event, USAFE sent four F-15s from RAF Lakenheath and two KC-135s from RAF Mildenhall, Britain. This was the second Northern Viking exercise since the US military left the island in 2006. (Keflavik report by SSgt. Nathan Gallahan)
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.