Rand released on March 7 a 26-page summary of its nearly two-year-long KC-135 tanker recapitalization Analysis of Alternatives. (The entire AOA measures 16 volumes and 1,900 pages.) As Michael Kennedy, a principle author, told the House Armed Services Committee last week, the analysis concludes the best alternative would be a new “commercial derivative” tanker in the medium to large range. As to the when, the AOA offers varying options and cost suppositions for buying new, modified aircraft now or later. It caveats any overall cost benefit from delaying recapitalization with warnings about the potential for “unforeseen technical difficulties” arising from extended operation of the nearly 50-year old KC-135 fleet. The AOA says, “A fleet of this age and size is unprecedented in aviation history.”

The Rand tanker AOA delved into various platform options, including the use of the ever-more popular unmanned aerial vehicles. The Rand take on a UAV as aerial refueler is thumbs down. “These systems would offer no cost advantages even if...

Converting a handful of the Navy’s nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles into conventionally armed weapons will give the Defense Department an important new capability, a senior defense official said Tuesday. The converted D5 submarine launched ballistic missiles would offer the capability to...

The Air Force had been weighing the utility of a conventionally armed ICBM, but DOD officials judged the naval option to be superior, a senior defense official said Tuesday. First, the Minuteman III is an old design, delivering less accuracy...

As it turns out, those 50 Minuteman III ICBMs being cut from the Air Force’s arsenal are needed—but not as operational nuclear missiles. The Air Force needs them to replace missiles used in routine ICBM operational test launches. It will...

The plan to reduce the B-52 fleet to just 56 bombers is part of the Air Force’s “three-phase” long-range strike portfolio, Gen. Michael Moseley told the Senate Armed Service Committee. The Chief of Staff was responding to Sen. Carl Levin...

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking minority member, Sen. Carl Levin, wants to see the data that led the Air Force to its decision to retire 38 B-52 bombers. He asked Gen. Michael Moseley whether the Air Force had done “a...

Take 183 F-22A Raptors and subtract 57 for training, attrition reserve, etc. and you get seven squadrons of 18 fighters—or vice versa. “Seven squadrons is what we can field with the 183 [Raptors] that came out of the QDR,” Air...

One might ask why not have fewer squadrons of F-22A Raptors, since the total number is now limited to 183? The top civilian for the Air Force told lawmakers that it’s a question of “depth of leadership.” Michael Wynne explained...

US Air Force personnel helped other coalition and Iraqi airmen to officially open the Al Muthana Air Base near Bagdhad Airport on March 7. Maj. Gen. Kamal Barzanjy, Iraqi Air Force Chief of Staff, called the ceremony, which included a...

The North Dakota Air National Guard’s 119th Fighter Wing Happy Hooligans touted what they thought was a new flying safety record: more than 70,000 accident-free hours in the unit’s F-16 fighters. Unfortunately, it is not the most accident-free hours for...

The coalition airlift community at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, banded together recently when the “gateway” base had an “unusually large influx of troops,” reports Air Force journalist SSgt. Lara Gale. A Spanish Air Force detachment that normally transports Spanish personnel supporting...

March 7, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 14 4 – 18 CAS/Armed Recon 52 14 – 66 Airlift – – 174 174 Air refueling – – 32 32 Total 66 18 206 290 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...