C-130 Allocation Plan Nearly Complete

The Air Force expects to provide Congress with its C-130 allocation plan in the next month, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told members of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on Wednesday. The Fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill required the Air Force to submit a five-year plan covering everything from fleet beddown to modernization. Welsh said the report is finished and has gone through the initial reviews on the Air Staff. “I commented on it last week … and returned it to the Headquarters Air Force staff. We now need to get the final draft together” and send it to “the Secretary so she can review it and make final decisions.” In Fiscal 2013, the Air Force began looking at ways to draw down its fleet of 358 C-130s to “about 300 to 308” after a study revealed the service had excess airlift capacity. “Those plans have been stalled a little bit while we make sure we get the allocation plan right,” said Welsh, who said the upcoming report will “either validate or adjust the allocation plans that were in both the 2014 and 2015” President’s Budget. (See also The Once and Future Mobility Force from the March 2014 issue of Air Force Magazine.)