It takes 36 KC-135 tankers to refuel six B-1B or B-52 bombers when the bombers deploy from Barksdale AFB, La., to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, says retired Lt. Gen. John Sams Jr., who was head of 15th Air Force and responsible for half of the Air Force’s mobility assets. Sams told attendees at an Air Force Association luncheon on Capitol Hill that it takes hundreds of tankers at one time to move a fleet overseas. On the routine Barksdale-Diego Garcia route, those 36 refueling tankers may come from Fairchild AFB, Wash., Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, Kadena AB, Japan, and Andersen AFB, Guam. Additionally, the mission typically requires four extra tankers to refuel aircraft carrying support personnel and gear for the bombers.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
