We reported that the head of US Transportation Command, USAF Gen. Norton Scwhartz, in testimony last week said that he could use additional C-17s—20 would be his number. That is correct. However, he also said that, from a “combatant command point of view,” he would get more benefit from a hybrid tanker. It would, he said, “give this nation greater payback than does the 181st C-17, the 201st, or certainly the 221st.” Schwartz then declared he could use additional C-17s, but he would like to see them purchased “as a cost of war” in a supplemental, so that the Pentagon could get on with a tanker buy.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
