Air Force senior leaders during the latest Corona South, which was held March 27-28 at Bolling AFB, D.C., received briefings—and provided feedback—on a number of topical issues, including the status of the service’s now six-months-old nuclear enterprise roadmap. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, who gather senior military and civilian leaders several times a year, believe the rejuvenated nuclear enterprise now has all the major policy pieces in place, including creation of the new Air Force Global Strike Command, and they want to ensure unit commanders are now engaged in the enterprise. Schwartz said, “Bringing commanders into the process now will operationally ground those policies.” Leaders also heard that the service is engaged in a review of proper sizing for unified command air components and expects to produce a proposal sometime this summer. And, this spring, the Air Force plans to produce an acquisition improvement plan. Said Donley, “We recognize how complex the acquisition enterprise is and we must continue to strengthen our workforce and internal procedures so we can deliver products and services that perform as promised, on time, within budget.” (AFNS report)
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.