The Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Agency stood up a human intelligence detachment at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, Aug. 14, thereby re-establishing Humint as a core intelligence discipline. Det. 6, as it is known, is the first Humint unit in the Air Force since 1995. “This detachment signifies another step forward in re-establishing Humint in the Air Force,” said Maj. Gen. Craig Koziol, AF ISR Agency commander. The unit is co-located with the agency’s National Air and Space Intelligence Center. The Air Force has had an initial cadre of Humint personnel in place since November 2007. AFISRA expects the new detachment to transition to squadron-level over the next few years. Creation of the unit is part of the service’s ongoing transformation of its ISR operations and organizations. Last month for example, the 480th Intelligence Wing at Langley AFB, Va., formally incorporated three intelligence groups from Germany, Hawaii, and South Korea to align the service’s distributed common ground system under one organizational roof. (Includes Lackland report by Maj. Michelle Lai)
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.