If Secretary Frank Kendall and other Air Force leaders get their way, the service will be retiring older aircraft in the near future as it looks to modernize. Specifically, legacy systems such as the A-10, KC-135, F-16, and C-130H are all primed for the chopping ...
KC-135
The Air Force has managed to address its gap in aerial refueling capability thanks to the KC-46 tanker being cleared for limited operations and the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard stepping up to take on a bigger workload, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. ...
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With KC-135s and KC-10s surging forward to help with the ongoing airlift out of Afghanistan, KC-46s are picking up some slack back home with the new tanker's first operational taskings under Air Mobility Command's plan to have the Pegasus start flying limited operations. KC-46s have ...
Air Mobility Command on Aug. 6 announced it is freeing up the KC-46 for more operations, allowing the tanker to refuel C-17s, B-52s, and other KC-46s in some circumstances. The move is the second “interim capability release” for the troubled tanker. AMC last month cleared ...
For decades, Air Force gray-tailed aircraft have displayed their home base and heritage with a small graphic on the plane’s tail, but that tradition will come to an end for much of the Air Force’s next-generation tanker fleet. Air Mobility Command has ended the policy ...
The Air National Guard will get the next two tranches of KC-46 Pegasus tankers, at locations to be decided within the next 12 months, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom told the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21. ...
What It's Like Aboard the New KC-46 Tanker.
The Air Force on July 19 released a request for information to the defense industry for the proposed “bridge tanker” to follow the KC-46, with a list of questions emphasizing how the future refueler will continue the service’s push for improved command and control on ...
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash.—For a barometer of the military’s unrelenting thirst for aerial refueling, look to the sprawling flight line here in the Inland Northwest. Fairchild is the home of the Air Force’s only “super” tanker wing, with four KC-135 squadrons. The fourth, the ...
Total aircraft inventory; aircraft inventory trends; ICBM and satellite inventory; aircraft age; tail codes.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center on June 16 issue a call to determine which companies could provide a “bridge tanker” to cover the gap in tanker capacity between the end of KC-46 production and development of a future refueler. The Sources Sought Announcement ...
