Active Duty airmen from the 41st Airlift Squadron at Little Rock AFB, Ark., tackled Nevada’s mountainous terrain in their C-130Js during a training visit to Reno Air National Guard Base. The January trip was in preparation for the airmen’s upcoming deployment to Afghanistan, according to a Feb. 4 release from Nevada’s 152nd Airlift Wing, an Air Guard unit that operates C-130Hs at Reno. “The mission and terrain here in Nevada is similar to what we’ll see overseas, and we can’t get this kind of training at home,” said Lt. Col. Jim Burgess, 41st AS commander. The Arkansas Super Hercs flew mixed training sorties with Reno’s legacy C-130s. “We have experience flying in a mountainous environment in our H-model C-130s” that proved valuable to the visiting crews, said Lt. Col. Caesar Garduno, commander of Reno’s 192nd AS. Airmen of the 570th Contingency Response Group from Travis AFB, Calif., set up and ran several austere forward bases to give the crews practice in operating from high-altitude unimproved airstrips, according to the release. (Reno report by Capt. Jason Yuhasz)
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.