President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss cybersecurity issues during their June 7 meeting in Rancho Mirage in southern California, according to a Pentagon release. US officials have spoken out more frequently of late about suspected Chinese hacking of sensitive US military and commercial infrastructure. The bilateral talks are expected to set the ground work for the next meeting under the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that will take place in July, according to a defense official. The July meeting will be the first time the US-China cybersecurity working group, announced in Beijing in April by Secretary of State John Kerry in April, will convene, states the June 5 release. US officials expect cyber to become a standing issue in the U.S.-China relationship, given the importance of cybersecurity to the global economy, states the release. Cybersecurity “is an issue that we’ve paid increased attention to over the . . . last several years, as we saw an increased number of cyber threats from a range of actors, and as we saw the need to strengthen our own defense,” said the defense official. (AFPS report by Cheryl Pellerin) (See also China’s Cyber Espionage.)
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.