On Oct. 1, officials of the newly formed McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Joint Base in New Jersey heralded the arrival of the first tri-service facility. The first commander of the joint base—a BRAC 2005 amalgam of McGuire Air Force Base, Ft. Dix, and NAES Lakehurst—Air Force Col. Gina Grosso told the assembled politicians, service officials, and members of the workforce that the new construct has “the ability to take the best practices of each base and apply them across what will now be one installation; for every installation management function, we have the opportunity to look at three unique ways of doing business and creating a new process that takes the best of the three.” (JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst report by Stephen Snyder and TSgt. Denise Johnson; also see Associated Press report and Philadelphia Inquirer report)
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.