Training sorties at the Iraqi Air Force’s primary rotary wing base are slowly improving, and the Iraqis are training with more advanced equipment and newer tactics, Air Force advisers told the Daily Report during a visit to Iraq in November. US Air Force Lt. Col. William Rowell, the director of operations for the 721st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron, notes that many of the Iraqi airmen at Camp Taji are experienced, and, in some cases, are reluctant to learn new tactics and techniques. That’s not the case for newer airmen being trained, for example, in crew positions that, under Saddam Hussein’s regime, did not exist (such as side-firing PK light machine gunners on the IqAF’s Mi-17 transport helicopters). Read more about the efforts to build Iraq’s rotary wing force in Rotary Operations, the Iraqi Way.
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.