Australian F/A-18 Hornets are sharing the flight line with British Tornado GR.4s and Air Force fighters, including F-22s, for the Red Flag air combat training exercise at Nellis AFB, Nev. “With our fighter force about to transition to the [F-35] in a couple of years, it’s really important that we start to get up to speed with fifth generation capabilities and techniques,” explained Group Capt. Vincent Iervasi, Royal Australian Air Force detachment commander. The RAAF traditionally participates in Red Flag with the United States and British Royal Air Force every two years. “The access to capabilities at Red Flag, from a force-integration perspective, is something we can’t get anywhere else in the world,” said Iervasi. Red Flag 12-3 is rated a tier 1 exercise, involving allied forces cooperating at the highest level of security classification. This Red Flag iteration began Feb. 27 and runs through Friday. (Nellis report by SrA. Jack Sander)
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.