Talk about odd statements, there is this one made by USMC Gen. James Cartwright July 9 during the Senate testimony in which he made the OSD case for only 187 F-22s: “There is a study in the Joint Staff we just completed and partnered with the Air Force on that, number one, said that proliferating within the United States military fifth-generation fighters to all three services was going to be more significant than having them based solidly in just one service, because of the way we deploy and because of the diversity of our deployment.” That drew this barbed response from a senior defense official: “Does that mean that we should also put ships, tanks, infantry in all the services as well?”
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.