The 
455th Expeditionary Aerial Port Squadron, Det. 3 at Camp Marmal, Afghanistan, has grown in size to handle the surge of activity at the installation as coalition forces transfer personnel and equipment out of the country. Camp Marmal is a forward operating base near the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif; the camp is primarily home to German forces. “Right now there is a surge in movement at Camp Marmal,” said Lt. Col. Luther King, 455th EAPS commander at Bagram Airfield, in a Feb. 13 release. “That is why we decided to send the additional airmen to help,” he added. Detachment members are tasked with loading and unloading every US aircraft that comes in and out of the camp, processing more than 2,600 pounds of cargo and some 2,200 personnel each month, states the release. (Bagram report by SrA. Chris Willis)
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.