Air Force and Navy planners shaping the fledgling AirSea Battle concept could benefit by incorporating facets of past joint-service warfighting initiatives, said Alan Vick, RAND senior analyst. Speaking last week at AFA’s Global Warfare Symposium in Los Angeles, Vick suggested that a sound model for AirSea Battle would be a hybrid framework that combines aspects of the Cold War Air Force-Army AirLand Battle plan with components of the earlier Army-Navy War Plan Orange strategy. Vick portrayed AirLand Battle’s strength as being a short-term solution for executing well-defined initiatives. Conversely, War Plan Orange—conceived in the early 20th century for dealing militarily with Japan—provided a framework for long-range planning and an analytical strategy that was adaptable and able to withstand budget perturbations, he said. (For more of Vick from the symposium, see Change Your M.O.)
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.