NORAD and 1st Air Force (Air Forces Northern) brought together air chiefs from North America for a three-day conference at Tyndall AFB, Fla. Through briefings and breakout sessions, the forum provided the attendees the opportunity to foster relationships and cooperation through exchange on topics like air defense, homeland security, and border security. In addition to the US, participants attended from Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. “Our aim, through open and frank discussions, was to positively impact regional air domain issues and to advance relationships with other organizations,” said Maj. Gen. Garry Dean, AFNORTH commander, of the July 12-15 event. He added, “We believe the conference was enormously successful in achieving our goals.” (Tyndall report by Mary McHale)
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.