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depot field team from Robins AFB, Ga., flew to Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., to retrieve the horizontal stabilizer from a retired C-5A Galaxy that recently entered the service’s aircraft boneyard. Maintainers will take this stabilizer, or “stab” in their parlance, and place it on another C-5. The Air Force has six C-5s in the fleet that still require stab replacement by December 2012, or they will be grounded for safety reasons, according to Robins officials. Since they aren’t scheduled for programmed depot maintenance until after the deadline, they are coming to Robins just for the stab replacement. The first of them is expected to arrive at Robins later this year. It will get the stab pulled from the boneyard, said Robins officials. They said the C-5’s stab is huge: “bigger than an F-15.” (Robins report by Wayne Crenshaw)
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.