The Air Force’s C-130 Programmed Depot Maintenance Team at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex in Georgia has won the Defense Secretary’s 2012 Robert T. Mason Depot Maintenance Excellence Award, announced Pentagon officials on Aug. 28. The team is recognized for its outstanding work in Fiscal 2011 that improved C-130 availability despite higher operational demands on the fleet. This included slashing flow days in depot from 102 to 69, achieving 100 percent on-time delivery by the end of the fiscal year, and lowering customer-reported deficiencies by 60 percent, states the Defense Department’s release. Also announced were the recipients of the Defense Secretary’s annual field-level maintenance awards. The Air Force winners are: the 23rd Maintenance Group at Moody AFB, Ga., in the large-unit category; the 3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, in the medium-unit category; and the 353rd Special Operations Maintenance Squadron at Kadena AB, Japan, in the small-unit category. Pentagon officials will present these awards on Nov. 15 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
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.