Letters

I received my 2026 Air & Space Forces Almanac and was looking forward to seeing where my Air Force is currently standing. There were many new changes but the one that immediately caught my eye was the failure of the KC-46 Remote Vision System correction to be fielded.

There was no mention of an immediate plan to correct the ongoing system problems, but now there would be an additional delay of almost two years before the new RVS 2.0 will be fielded during the depot level maintenance process. This continuing slip is the latest in a long line of failed promises to correct this problem. My concern isn’t for the politics or optics this creates but the men and women who have to fly this aircraft if we get into a real fight with a peer aggressor.

Our aircrew will be at the mercy of a system that is not 100 percent functional and in combat that could be fatal. This would not only affect the ability of the crew to do their job but the aircraft they are trying to refuel. If they can’t be refueled, they can’t execute their mission. In addition, the article addresses reliability issues and lack of spare parts as additional detractors of aircraft availability.

A single sentence in the article tells who is actually bearing the burden of keeping this aircraft flying, “the daily heroics from the crews on the ground.” This aircraft has many of the issues the B-1B had during its development. To prove what the aircraft could do it had to perform a mandated test that was done at a deployed location. The deployment was 100 percent staffed, deployed kits were fully stocked, and parts availability was maintained throughout the deployment.

The results spoke for themselves. Mission capable rates were exceeded, more sorties were completed than scheduled and systems performed as required ensuring mission accomplishment. Yes, it was the daily efforts of the maintenance crews that ensured mission success during the deployment, but it was also due to them having a proven aircraft and the resources to get the mission done. We don’t have all of this with this aircraft. We only have to hope that we don’t get into a major confrontation before 2028, where we need to maximize refueling capably. Then we’ll find out how well the KC-46 actually performs. We should also ask why this aircraft was allowed to be purchased even after these critical defects were identified.

Also in the 2026 Almanac, there was a statement on page 32, under “About this Edition,” that indicated some data had been withheld by the Department of the Air Force. It did not say why.

Almost all of the data withheld related to issues that have been bones of contention or hot topics in several articles in past AFA magazines and in recent news articles. My personal favorites were the mission capable rates and average age of aircraft by command. These rates say a lot about the health of the aircraft, its logistics requirements and what we have ready to fight with.

I hope someone will come forward and explain why this data was withheld because old maintenance guys like me like to know how our aircraft are doing in the new operational environment we are living in.

CMSgt. John P. Fedarko, USAF (Ret.)Xenia, Ohio

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan and I went to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and I dedicated the F-4 (restored by the Alabama Air National Guard) that “Chappie” James flew in Operation Bolo, [See, Heroes/Leaders: Daniel Chappie James Jr., May/June, p. 176].

Reagan was a captain in the AAF during WW II, had enlisted in the Reserves in 1937, and may have been partial to USAF. He did a great job dedicating the new ROTC building.

Bill Plante of CBS News asked about a statement attributed to Reagan’s National Security Advisor. The President said it should be raised in D.C., we’re here to honor General James.

That evening’s news had the Plante question and not a word about where Reagan was and what he was doing.

I lost all interest in TV news after that.

Lt. Gen. Truman Spangrud, USAF (Ret.)Tucson