An 
Air Force E-8 JSTARS surveillance aircraft teamed with Navy and Customs Service patrol airplanes to hone interoperability. They jointly identified, tracked, and helped to engage maritime targets off the South Carolina coast during Exercise Iron Dagger. The E-8 worked with Customs’ P-3 Orion airborne warning platform and the Navy’s new P-8 Poseidon surveillance aircraft to vector Air Force A-10s and F-15s to interdict live surface targets during the June 11-15 drills, according to a June 20 release from Robins AFB, Ga., home to the JSTARS fleet. “It’s given us an insight into what JSTARS can do to help US Customs and Border Protection,” noted a CBP agent during the exercise. JSTARS, he added, “can see a lot of the marine environment.” The Georgia Air National Guard’s 116th Air Control Wing and Active Duty 461st ACW, both at Robins, organized the exercise. (Robins report by MSgt. Roger Parsons)
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.