The tanker roadmap laid out for Congressmen last week (see above) calls for USAF to retain its youngest KC-135Rs until 2043, or until they are about 86 years old. That will demand three major capability upgrades before 2015 and a major structural service life extension program starting in 2025. The service plans to retain about 500 KC-135Rs until 2018, when they will start to retire at a rate of about 20 per year. To keep its other tankers—the KC-10s—viable during this extended tanker replacement schedule, the Air Force will need to provide them some service life stretching. The KC-10 needs a big avionics update starting in 2011 and a major SLEP in 2031. The KC-10s would remain in inventory until 2049—when they will be a spry 69 years old.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
