Gen. Roger Brady, commander of US Air Forces in Europe, speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday, strongly rejected criticism of the combat contribution in Afghanistan by NATO and European allies. In fact, he said, as of August, more than 39,000 of the 110,000 troops in Afghanistan are from NATO and European allies. Brady also downplayed the impact of the caveats European governments put on their forces in Afghanistan, saying he likes to think of NATO and the European allies as family at Thanksgiving dinner. There will always be “a few weird relatives,” Brady explained, but at the end of the day you are family. He emphasized, “When we go to war, we go with our European allies.”
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.