Officials at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, prompted members of the C-17 Executive Program Management Review—including airmen from the US, Britain, Canada, and Australia, as well as Boeing industry representatives—to gather in Alaska earlier this month so the group could experience first-hand how the cold affects C-17 operations. Jean Chamberlin, Boeing global mobility systems general manager, said you can “intellectually understand it, but until you experience what happens to this equipment [in the cold] it just doesn’t sink in,” such as “where we have the shortfalls in the tech orders in terms of how you start the aircraft after it’s sat on the runway for 24 hours in minus 20 degree weather.” The C-17 program office at Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, uses the EPMR to gain a “direct voice from the customer” enabling the office to “set priorities, advocate for funding, and find technical solutions for real-world problems,” explained Col. Mark Mol, C-17 system program manager. (Elmendorf report by A1C David Carbajal)
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.