The Illinois Air National Guard’s 126th Air Refueling Wing and 183rd Fighter Wing will take on three new non-flying missions, Army Maj. Gen. William Enyart, the state adjutant general, announced June 30. Springfield’s 183rd FW, which under BRAC 2005 is scheduled to relinquish its F-16s before the end of the year—even though Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been resisting the loss of the aircraft mission—will stand up an air and space operations center designated as the 183rd Air Operations Group and a centralized intermediate repair facility for the General Electric F110 engine, Enyart said. The repair facility will support five ANG F-16 flying units across the country. Conversion to the new missions will begin in Fiscal 2009; both should be fully operational two years later. The 126th ARW at Scott AFB, Ill., will add a “global logistics or regional supply squadron” that will be designated as the 126th Regional Supply Chain Squadron, according to the release. No stand-up date was given.
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.