Air Force Reserve Command’s 927th Air Refueling Wing formally transferred from Selfridge ANGB, Mich., to MacDill AFB, Fla., April 27, completing an almost three-year process mandated by BRAC 2005. Under the move, the Reserve wing relinquished its eight KC-135s to the Michigan Air National Guard’s newly formed 127th ARW at Selfridge, and is now in an associate partnership with MacDill’s active duty 6th Air Mobility Wing. At MacDill, the reservists will help fly and maintain the active-duty wing’s KC-135s. “We are going to build the premier KC-135 associate wing,” said Col. Kenneth Lewis, who took command of the 927th ARW on the same day as the transfer, according to an April 29 release from MacDill.
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.