America's New Tanker: Needed Now

Two recent articles, one in Aerospace Daily and Defense Report and the other in Air Force Magazine are the latest in a long line of stories highlighting the urgent need to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of KC-135 tankers.>> The Aerospace Daily piece quotes none other than the most powerful defense appropriator in the U.S. House, Congressman John Murtha, who recently told a reporter that despite the tightening U.S. Defense budget, the tanker replacement is one of "only two U.S. Air Force production lines...likely to remain in operation.">> Congressman Murtha "said he's trying to convince the Defense Department and industry to decide 'what weapons systems we need, how we're going to look at them and let's buy them up in a quantity that we save some money.'">> The Air Force Magazine piece, headlined "Air Lift on Thin Ice," quotes General Arthur Lichte, head of the Air Force Mobility Command who said the entire mobility fleet "is at 'the ragged edge of the minimum' for the job.>> With respect to the tanker program in particular, the Air Force Magazine article notes, "A huge factor in the mobility equation will be the new KC-X tanker. In February, the Air Force selected the Northrop Grumman KC-30 to replace the oldest USAF tankers, the KC-135Es. The Eisenhower-vintage KC-135Es have become so frail, Lichte said, that it is no longer economical to fly them, and the last E models in the fleet are either already being retired or are grounded pending retirement.">> Further, it states, "Since the KC-135Es are no longer flying, AMC has decided to increase the rate at which it flies the KC-135Rs, which received a structural modification in the 1990s that made them "younger" than the E models, and gave them newer engines. Additional flight crews will be added, and E model technicians will be put to work on the Rs. However, AMC said that the Rs cannot keep up the pace indefinitely. They will have to be relieved by the new tanker, and soon.