Air Force Global Strike Command is on pace to have about 270 personnel in its headquarters at Barksdale AFB, La., by the end of September and be fully staffed with about 900 personnel a year from now, Maj. Gen. Donald Alston, point man for nuclear issues on the Air Staff, said Thursday during a conference call with reporters. Alston said AFGSC will get the lion’s share of the 2,500 billets being created to bolster the service’s nuclear enterprise. Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, boss of the newly activated major command, will make the detailed personnel and staffing decisions as the service’s nuclear-capable bomber and ICBM units are moved under his control and his team decides how best to manage them, said Alston.
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.