The United States is likely to lose service members by the thousands each day in warfare of the future if the Air Force does not start “replacing its decrepit fleet of tankers” pronto, asserts Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. Thompson sees the cargo hauling issue (see above) for the KC-X as one that “could be a show stopper.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.