Airman Magazine, the Air Force’s official publication, will disappear from coffee tables across the service after this month due to budget cuts to all four services’ magazines. September’s issue, which highlights changes to the force since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is the final hard-copy distribution before the magazine’s re-launch as an Internet-only publication. The updated Web format will allow more frequent updates and additional content, such as video, to accompany features, according to the service’s release. The goal is “to continue providing Air Force readers with Airman’s trademark feature-length stories and high-quality images, while embracing new technologies and new ways of telling the Air Force story,” it states. Airman debuted in 1957, running as a quarterly, monthly, and until recently, a bi-monthly magazine.
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.