The Pentagon is establishing a Defense Innovation Advisory Board, and has tapped Eric Schmidt of Google and Alphabet to chair it. Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and Defense Secretary Ash Carter will work together to select the board. “Just as the Defense Business Board provides advice to the department on best business practices from the private sector, the Defense Advisory Board will provide advice on the best and latest practices in innovation that the department can emulate,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a written sta?tement. The board will be made up of 12 people who have led large public and private organizations and who are adept at identifying and adopting new technology concepts, Cook said. The board will not discuss military operations or strategy, but rather areas that are familiar to tech companies, such as the use of mobile and cloud applications, rapid prototyping, and organizational information sharing.
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.