Members of Air Force Reserve Command’s 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, will begin their C-17 training on Thursday with an aircraft on loan from JB Charleston, S.C. A 445th AW aircrew will fly the C-17 from Charleston to Wright-Patterson, according to a wing release. The unit will use this C-17 as a maintenance trainer. A second C-17 is scheduled to arrive in Ohio next month to provide 445th AW aircrews with a training platform. Already 32 maintainers from the wing have trained at Charleston and 10 pilots and six loadmasters—equating to three C-17 aircrews—have completed their training at Altus AFB, Okla., said wing officials. The Air Force intends to bring eight C-17s to Wright-Patterson by the end of Fiscal 2012 to replace the wing’s 10 C-5As as part of a broader plan to retire up to 22 C-5As fleet-wide.
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.