Army Lt. Gen. Ken Keen, head of Joint Task Force Haiti, told bloggers Monday there has been only one way to get supplies, equipment, and people into earthquake-devastated Haiti, the international airport, which routinely hosted only 13 flights per day. Now, said Keen, thanks to “the best airmen in the world” who quickly got the airfield operating again and with turnover of airfield management to USAF airmen, the flow has been fairly constant at 100 aircraft or so a day. He noted that some delayed and turned away flights, like one international flight delivering a portable hospital, have generated bad news, but he said many US flights also were turned away, in many cases because an aircraft on the ground had mechanical problems. On Jan. 18, Keen said 180 flights went through with no delays. Still, he advocated getting ports reopened quickly to “take pressure off the airport.” (Transcript)
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.