Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, commander of the new Air Force Global Strike Command, visited two of his future units—the 5th Bomb Wing, a B-52H unit, and the 91st Missile Wing, a Minuteman III ICBM unit—during a visit last week to Minot AFB, N.D. In remarks before the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce, Klotz invoked Strategic Air Command when he said the Air Force plan to reinvigorate its nuclear enterprise in its “simplest, most basic form” is all about knowing procedures and following them, reports the Minot Daily News. Klotz did not downplay the “tough challenges” still ahead; however, he said at the wing level airmen “will use the same technical orders and the same manuals they have always used,” but they will gain “a single major command that focuses solely on their mission.”
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.