Air Force Space Command reacted fairly quickly to stamp out the latest “declining GPS sats” story, using Twitter to clear up a Dec. 28 Associated Press report picked up by Fox News and making the Internet rounds that attributed the three-day stranding in Oregon of an elderly couple to poor GPS directions. An Air Force Space Command official posted a Twitter note: “While we do not want to speculate on what caused the couple to get stuck in the snow; the cause was not due to the GPS signal.” That got picked up by Space.com and, in turn, MSNBC, Fox, and others. According to the Space.com report, AFSPC spokesperson Toni Tones said, “All I can say is that the signals that are coming down are very strong and healthy,” she said, adding that questions about GPS device instructions should go to the GPS unit manufacturer.
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.