Air Education and Training Command’s 2nd Air Force will have a new 2,000 square-foot operations facility at Keesler AFB, Miss., to serve as its operational command and control hub from which it will control technical training for some 245,000 US and allied service personnel annually. The reorganization “allows us to better synchronize the training pipeline flow from end to end,” said Maj. Gen. Alfred Flowers, 2nd AF commander. Additionally, the numbered air force, which also oversees ground combat skills training for in-lieu-of airmen, has established a detachment of 43 personnel at Lackland AFB, Tex., the home of USAF’s basic military training, to improve oversight into the BMT pipeline and handle job classification actions for BMT and tech training students. Flowers called the two initiatives a “win-win” for both 2nd AF and AETC because it “improves and consolidates training management functions and streamlines functional chains, reducing unintended duplication of efforts.” (2nd AF report by Lt. Col. Claudia Foss)
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.