Members 
of the 7th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Dyess AFB, Tex., learned “hot pit” refueling of the B-1 bomber from their counterparts at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., announced Dyess officials. This procedure is new to the B-1, with maintainers from Ellsworth’s 28th Maintenance Group incorporating it into their operations in the past several months and then coming down to Texas to train their Dyess colleagues on Feb. 22, according to Dyess’ Feb. 28 release. “With the short amount of time we had to teach hot pit refueling, the Dyess maintainers have really shown to be super absorbent as far as all of the information we brought down,” said SSgt. Ryan Walker of the 28th MXG. Under this procedure, maintainers refuel an aircraft while the aircrew remains inside the cockpit and the aircraft’s engines remain running. The B-1 maintainers said hot pit refueling decreases the time it takes to re-launch an aircraft and it is less stressful on the airframes. “We can use this procedure to launch jets with lighter fuel loads, allowing less stress on the aircraft, which in turn helps with the longevity of the B-1,” said SrA. Mark Moser of the 7th AMXS. (Dyess report by A1C Jonathan Stefanko)
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.