Lt. Col. John Bunnell, an F-15E weapon system officer, on Jan. 24 reached his 3,000th flight hour in the backseat of a Strike Eagle during a four-hour mission from Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. “This is a nice milestone for me,” said Bunnell, a native of Birmingham, Ala., who is deployed from RAF Lakenheath, Britain, as commander of Bagram’s 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. This unit comprises a contingent of F-15Es and airmen deployed to Afghanistan from Lakenheath’s 494th Fighter Squadron. Bunnel has been flying in F-15Es since 1990 and has now completed 120 combat sorties. More than 370 of his 3,000 flight hours have been in combat. (Bagram report by SSgt. Richard Williams)
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.