Army Gen. Carter Ham, US Africa Command boss, said he’s encouraged by the growing number of nations joining the coalition committed to stopping Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s forces from attacking innocent Libyan civilians. Ham told reporters Monday that Belgian and Canadian forces joined the fight on Monday and he expected additional countries to become involved in the coming days. US and British warships launched 124 Tomahawk missiles against Libya’s integrated air and missile defense systems over the weekend, effectively kick-starting the no-fly zone over the coastal city of Benghazi. On Sunday, US aircraft flew roughly 30 of the 60 air sorties over the region, but by Monday, coalition partners’ aircraft flew “the overwhelming percentage” of sorties, said Ham. “We are hopeful some other nations will continue to join us. Some have made some firm offers and we expect to see their forces operating in the next day or two,” he said. France, Denmark, and Qatar are among the coalition nations participating in Operation Odyssey Dawn. (Ham transcript)
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.