Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley told NATO air force commanders that the alliance “may be even more important today than it was during the Cold War.” He believes that the so-called “long war” against terrorism and emerging trans-national threats “add urgency to our efforts to increase interoperability among our nations and air forces.” NATO has had great success working together in the Baltics and Afghanistan and is now ready to support the NATO response force in places like Africa. “Our forces are strategic and global in nature and there are no boundaries or barriers to prevent us from further success against enemy terrorists.” Moseley said.
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.