Speaking to defense reporters in Washington Thursday, Gen. Bruce Carlson, head of Air Force Materiel Command, said that he has braced his workforce for the combination punch they face in trying to sustain greater numbers of aging and overworked aircraft with less money. Over the next 10 years, said Carlson, AFMC faces a “significant workload,” particularly when it comes to the KC-135 fleet, which needs new wiring, hydraulics, spars, and landing gears to sustain it until the service gets a new tanker. The AFMC boss added that AFMC maintainers have to invent new ways to extend the life spans of a growing fleet of older aircraft of all types, including figuring out how to obtain components that haven’t been produced for years. “We’re always looking for new opportunities to integrate new technologies,” Carlson said, noting that it won’t be the first time the command has had to engineer new solutions for electronics and components as a way of getting around the obsolete parts problem.
President Donald Trump on July 4 signed into law $150 billion in defense funds as part of the tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after congressional Republicans approved the legislation in narrow, drawn-out votes earlier this week.
