Air Force medical personnel are working with researchers at the University of Cincinnati to understand how providing medical care in the darkened, noisy, moving environments of military aircraft affects the body and what may be done to offset those effects, said Lt. Gen. Charles Green, Air Force surgeon general. Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel panel earlier this month, Green said clinical studies are also examining the amount of oxygen to give patients at higher altitudes during aeromedical evacuations. The Air Force also has recently fielded a device to improve spinal immobilization for AE patients, he said. Together with the Army, USAF medical personnel also are testing equipment to improve areas like ventilation, fluid resuscitation, and physiological monitoring in critical care air support, he noted. (Green prepared remarks)
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.