The Air Force Academy’s cyber competition team placed first out of 331 undergraduate teams from the United States and Canada at the recent Cyber Security Awareness Week Capture the Flag competition in New York City. The academy’s team placed eighth overall among all teams worldwide, including those comprising graduate students and industry professionals, according to an Oct. 12 academy release. The academy team was also the only team to solve all 32 technical security challenges presented at the competition, said Col. David Gibson, head of the academy’s computer science department. The Polytechnic Institute of New York University hosted the competition from Sept. 28 to Sept. 30. Teams from West Point and Annapolis placed 14th and 41st, respectively, said Gibson.
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.