Anyone thinking there are still billions of dollars worth of efficiencies that the Air Force can find in its budget is kidding himself, said Secretary Michael Donley Thursday. Donley said the Air Force has been on an efficiency campaign for 10 years, capped by $33 billion in overhead cuts demanded by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates last year. Although the Air Force won’t stop seeking energy savings and improved information technology, “there’s just not that much left to do,” by way of finding efficiency dollars, he said in a Capitol Hill speech. “We have leveraged ourselves already” and borrowed heavily against future needed programs, he said. “We’ve done what we can on efficiencies. We’ll try to do more, but you can’t expect tens of billions of dollars in savings from efficiencies going forward . . . from the United States Air Force.”
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.