Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey last week hosted Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, his Japanese counterpart, at the Pentagon as part of ongoing activities to strengthen bilateral security ties. Dempsey called the two countries’ alliance “long and very enduring” and said the United States and Japan are committed to improving and building on that partnership. Among the topics during their Aug. 23 meeting, Dempsey and Iwasaki discussed joint operations and expanding cooperation into areas like cyberspace and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, according to a Pentagon release. They also spoke about the US deployment of Marine Corps V-22 tiltrotor airplanes to Okinawa. “The Osprey is our next generation of tactical airlift, and so very important to our modernization efforts in our future,” said Dempsey. The United States wants “very much to assure the people of Okinawa, and the Japanese people, in general, that it will be safe to operate,” he added. (AFPS report by Amaani Lyle)
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.