The 50th Operations Group at Schriever AFB, Colo., has demonstrated a new means to provide GPS data to tactical units every 15 minutes to aid in predicting dilution of precise position data; the GPS Readily Available Navigation Datalink, or GRAND, enables warfighters to receive the data via Milstar communication satellites. • The Lompoc Record reports that fencing and signs are to be installed along the public trail that takes hikers along Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to Point Sal Beach to keep them from straying onto federal land; the base and state reached an agreement last month, reopening the beach to hikers and bikers after the baseprohibited access last year because of safety concerns, particularly during launches. • Richard Frazier, one of the Civil Air Patrol’s new Volunteer Support to the Air Force participants, provided videotaping service to record the 309th Fighter Squadron change of command at Luke AFB, Ariz.; CAP began VSAP as a pilot program at two other bases earlier this year.
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.