Air Force Space Command officials broke ground at Peterson AFB, Colo., for the new Space Education and Training Center facility. The state-of-the-art, $14.4 million building will house the National Security Space Institute and Advanced Space Operations School. Since 2004, AFPSC has run the center from a leased commercial facility in Colorado Springs because adequate on-base facilities did not exist. Moving the center on base will resolve force protection and academic operations concerns, said command officials. The anticipated move-in date is set for Fiscal 2012. “It’s been almost 10 years since the release of the Space Commission Report, which concluded there was a need to ‘create and sustain a cadre of space professionals’ and for the nation to ‘place a high priority on intensifying investments in career development, education, and training,'” said Maj. Gen. Michael Basla, AFSPC vice commander, at the Dec. 10 groundbreaking ceremony. (Peterson report by A1C Jessica Hines)
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.