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Army, and community and industry partners last week celebrated the opening at Robins AFB, Ga., of a $1.8 million training center that will serve, at least for now, as home to C-27J aircrew training in place of the previous interim site in Waco, Tex. On that same day, Dec. 9, the first class of airmen who will operate the new airlifter for the Air National Guard graduated from the new schoolhouse. Housed in the Air Guard’s former B-1B bomber building, the center offers classroom instruction and will feature a full-fidelity operational flight trainer, and a fuselage trainer, when fully equipped in 2011, said L-3 Communications, lead C-27J contractor, in a release. During the next two years, 24 pilots and 24 loadmasters are expected to graduate from the schoolhouse annually. At peak levels in about five years, 144 airmen will pass through it each year. Continue
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.