: The Air Force and Navy have held the first meeting of a newly created joint working group for their respective RQ-4 Global Hawk and Broad Area Maritime Surveillance remotely piloted aircraft fleets. “We are out here to see how you do business and figure out how we can best fit our program alongside yours to save the taxpayer some money,” said Navy Cmdr. Wes Naylor, BAMS program manager, in discussing his team’s visit last week to Beale AFB, Calif., home of USAF’s Global Hawk operations. The joint working group is one of the initiatives emerging from the memorandum of agreement that the two services signed in June to seek synergies in operating these fleets. BAMS is based on Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk airframe. The working group is expected to meet on a frequent basis. (Beale report by TSgt. Luke Johnson)
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.