F-15Es of the 335th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., excelled in a recent Combat Hammer weapons evaluation hosted at Hill AFB, Utah, doubling the average “hit” percentage on graded strike sorties, according to unit officials. “Airmen built, loaded, and employed 50 inert and live bombs, along with several thousand rounds of 20 mm bullets,” said Capt. Brandon Glass, 335th Maintenance Unit officer in charge. “We achieved 100 percent of our sorties with zero ground aborts. This is a rare feat for F-15Es,” he added. The unit’s maintainers crowned the achievement, turning in the “best maintenance performance in the history of Combat Hammer” receiving “excellent” ratings across the board, states Seymour Johnson’s Aug. 27 release. Combat Hammer grades units on every aspect of their air-to-ground weapons maintenance, handling, loading, and employment, with the goal of optimizing the units’ performance in combat. A Seymour Johnson contingent of 12 F-15Es and 250 airmen deployed to Hill from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20. (Seymour Johnson report by A1C Mariah Tolbert)
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.