The Air Force Sustainment Center, one of the new set pieces of Air Force Materiel Command’s recent restructuring, will provide readiness for the Air Force at less cost, said Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, the center’s commander. “We are going to be cost-effective and provide our nation the capability it needs,” he said during the annual “Tinker and the Primes” conference in Midwest City, Okla., on Aug. 17. Litchfield noted that some of the weapons systems that the center must sustain are more than 50 years old and some of them must stay in the force for another 30 years. Although his organization has no visibility on what the Air Force’s final Fiscal 2013 budget will be, he said, “we have to be ready” and “prepared for the future.” AFSC, headquartered at Tinker, includes units at Hill AFB, Utah, Robins AFB, Ga., and Scott AFB, Ill. (Tinker report by Mike W. Ray)
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.