All C-5A model aircraft reside with Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command units. USAF’s plan to retire 22 over the next two years would strip 10 from the AFRC unit at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and the other 12 likely would come from three Air National Guard units at Martinsburg, W.Va., Memphis, Tenn., or Stewart AFB, N.Y. USAF has already said it would put C-17s at Wright-Patt and, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, one ANG unit. The service’s recent basing announcement indicated all three Air Guard C-5A units are under consideration for the C-17, but it did not specify if it would select one or more.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.