USAF personnel helped return to operational service the first of five Nigerian air force C-130 transports undergoing extensive overhaul. Seventeenth Air Force (Air Forces Africa) at Ramstein AB, Germany, is sponsoring this capacity-building initiative so that the Nigerian C-130s may support peacekeeping operations on the African continent. Members of 17th AF, the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Airlift Wing in Nashville, and the C-130 program office at Robins AFB, Ga., supported the Nigerians as the aircraft went through programmed depot maintenance at a facility in Lisbon, Portugal. Among the depot work, maintainers overhauled the C-130’s engines and propellers and refurbished its cockpit and avionics. The USAF personnel also helped the Nigerians reintegrate the aircraft back into their fleet. The complete process took more than one year. (Ramstein report by SSgt. Stefanie Torres)
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.