Air Education and Training Command officials earlier this month merged the training squadrons at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., for missileers and ICBM maintainers. Under the merger, AETC rolled the 392nd Training Squadron, which trained all ICBM missileers, into the 532nd TRS under command-wide streamlining. “The newly merged unit will continue to teach 12 different ICBM and Air Launched Cruise Missile courses,” but with less administrative and support infrastructure, said Col. Michele Edmondson, commander of Vandy’s 381st Training Group, in the base’s July 13 release. “Class structure and teaching requirements will not change,” she stressed. Instead, the new structure will allow ICBM and ALCM trainees “to further capitalize on synergies between the missile maintenance and missile operations career fields, ultimately resulting in more well-rounded maintainers and operators,” added Edmondson. The 392nd TRS stood up in 1994; AETC inactivated the unit on July 2 as part of the merger. (Vandenberg report by SSgt. Erica Picariello)
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.