The Air Force needs to be a training force to grow indigenous air power in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan so they can keep up the fight without continued heavy US investment, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said Wednesday. “We cannot be every place, we cannot do everything,” Dunford said at ASC16. Even though the Air Force is already overstretched, it still must make training other countries’ air forces a top priority so momentum against adversaries such as ISIS will not be lost, and the fight will continue with a “relatively modest investment.” There is “not a better Air Force in the world, and not a better organization to build air forces,” Dunford said.
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.