Culminating a series of realignment moves that the Air Force has been making at Little Rock AFB, Ark., Air Mobility Command’s 19th Airlift Wing will be activated today at the base and then take over as the new host wing, assuming operational control from Air Education and Training Command’s 314th AW. With the changes, Little Rock’s focus shifts from training to combat, the base said in a release Sept. 29. Brig. Gen. Rowayne Schatz, who has been in charge of the 314th AW, will assume command of the 19th AW. Col. Charles Hyde takes over the 314th AW, which will become the tenant unit and continue to train C-130 aircrews. It operates both C-130H and C-130J models. While serving as host wing, the 314th AW supported both AMC’s 463rd Airlift Group and the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th AW. The 463rd AG is being subsumed by the 19th AW and will become the wing’s operations group, a Little Rock spokesman told the Daily Report yesterday. Its C-130s, both H and J models, will transfer to the 19th AW, he said. The 189th AW is staying put at the base and will continue to operate its C-130s from there.
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.