The Air Force’s enlisted heritage museum at Lackland AFB, Tex., has re-opened after a $730,000 building renovation that took more than nine months to complete. It also has also been renamed the USAF Airman Heritage Museum, replacing the old title, the History and Traditions Museum. The museum now features interactive technology, museum quality lighting, and 31 total exhibits. During the reopening ceremony earlier this month, Gen. Stephen Lorenz, head of Air Education and Training Command, emphasized the need to preserve the heritage of enlisted airmen and made a renewed pitch for a new, larger heritage museum at Lackland. “This is a great museum, but it’s a step on the journey and we should use it as a springboard into something phenomenal in the later part of this decade,” he said. (Lackland report by Mike Joseph)
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.