US Ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein and Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich signed the memorandum of understanding that facilitates the stand-up of a US Air Force aviation detachment in Poland on an enduring, full-time basis for military-to military engagement and joint training exercises. Under the agreement, the United States intends to establish the detachment in 2012, followed by rotational deployments of USAF aircraft beginning in 2013. “The detachment of personnel will support rotations of aircraft like US F-16s or C-130s to Poland for approximately two week periods four times per year,” states a release from the US embassy in Warsaw on the occasion of Monday’s signing. The parties did not announce the site of the detachment, but the plan is to utilize an existing Polish air force location. The joint training exercises include the potential “use of fifth generation fighter aircraft,” according to the MOU (full text). (Feinstein statement)
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.