One person you wouldn’t expect to be losing sleep over the current F-15 grounding is US Transportation Command boss Gen. Norton Schwartz. But Schwartz told a Capitol Hill audience Thursday that the F-15 situation is a “stark reminder” that a key aircraft being grounded can cause huge problems for the entire US military. Schwartz is worried that USAF’s elderly fleet of some 500 KC-135 aerial refuelers will find a way to break that can’t be fixed, stranding the Air Force with just 59 KC-10s. USAF expects to award a contract for the first new replacement tankers, the KC-X program, in February, but at the planned rate of about 12 to 18 new tankers per year, replacement of the entire KC-135 fleet will take about 40 years.
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.
