In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday, Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force Chief of Staff, told lawmakers asking about the 7,700 airmen fulfilling “in lieu of” taskings for soldiers in such areas as detainee operations, explosive ordnance disposal, interrogation, and logistics, that the total number is “coming down,” since the Army has returned many of them. However, Moseley said that although a majority of the airmen performing ILO jobs have done so within their particular competency, the other 25 percent or so working outside their core competencies “concerns us.” It is those airmen that the Air Force must dedicate time and money to retrain in their USAF specialties.
Boeing received a $2.47 billion Air Force contract Nov. 25 for 15 more KC-46s, bringing to 183 the number of Pegasus tankers on contract to all customers, foreign and domestic. The new contract—for Lot 12 of the initially planned KC-46 buy—is to be completed by 2029.
