With the “flagging” this week of a new 200-person detachment at Mansfield, Ohio, the Ohio Air National Guard’s 200th RED HORSE formally recognized that it no longer has to merge with another state to form a fully manned 400-airman RED HORSE unit. The 200th has operated for some 37 years out of its Port Clinton base, working with the 201st RHS in Pennsylvania. Both units got the go-ahead to plus-up under BRAC 2005. The 200th actually activated its Det. 1 in April, but the detachment’s airmen had deployed for Operation Jump Start along the US-Mexico border, so the squadron delayed unfurling the flag. (National Guard Bureau report by MSgt. Mike Smith)
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.