Orlando, Fla. The views of the two-star generals from the Active Duty and reserve components who comprise the Air Force’s Total Force Task Force have “crystallized” around the right way ahead for Total Force Integration, said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh here on Friday. Speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium, Welsh said he expected that the task force members would “hate each other for three months,” but eventually come to a “deep understanding” of each component’s unique circumstances, missions, and capabilities. They’ve even jumped to each other’s defense in certain debates, an “amazing transformation . . . into the ‘three amigos,'” he said. The task force has morphed into a permanent organization and made inputs for the Fiscal 2015 budget that Welsh said he felt “very strongly are the right recommendations.”
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.