Chief 
of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Thursday he still thinks it’s moderately risky for military effectiveness to end the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the US military during a time of war. But he noted that he’s grown more comfortable with implementing this policy change as he’s watched the service execute its preparations. “I’m not prepared to fall off of my assessment of moderate risk,” Schwartz told the House Armed Services Committee Thursday. He continued, “But we have trained 100,000-plus airmen to date, and the way we have approached this and the reaction that we have experienced thus far indicates to me that we are mitigating the risk. . . . And so, I am more comfortable than I was” when President Obama enacted the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal last December. “But we still have a ways to go, and it requires the constant attention of all of us to bring this home,” added Schwartz. He appeared before the committee with the uniformed leadership of the other services to discuss this issue.
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.