Adm. Cecil Haney, head of US Strategic Command, on Thursday said he plans to meet with the leadership of the Air Force’s nuclear-capable bomber community at the end of October to discuss the air leg of the US nuclear deterrent. “In particular, when I have these forums, I am very interested in how we are sustaining [a] capability, what are the problems associated with sustaining that capability now and into the future,” Haney told attendees of a strategic nuclear enterprise symposium in Washington, D.C., which was sponsored by Task Force 21 of Minot, N.D., along with AFA and defense companies. Haney said he’s been having these types of stakeholder powwows for each of the communities across the nuclear deterrence enterprise. For example, STRATCOM recently hosted meetings with the Navy’s ballistic missile submarine community and then with the sea service’s ballistic missile force. “It is extremely valuable to meet with the leaders of these communities to fully understand our … challenges,” he said. “We had some very frank discussions on [ways] we could best sustain and modernize today’s platforms and components,” he said of the recent talks.
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.