{"id":61740,"date":"2020-06-19T20:24:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T20:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/19\/house-to-block-kc-135-retirements-for-three-years-but-some-b-1-bombers-could-be-headed-for-the-boneyard\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:33:42","slug":"house-to-block-kc-135-retirements-for-three-years-but-some-b-1-bombers-could-be-headed-for-the-boneyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2020\/06\/19\/house-to-block-kc-135-retirements-for-three-years-but-some-b-1-bombers-could-be-headed-for-the-boneyard\/","title":{"rendered":"House to block KC-135 retirements for three years, but some B-1 bombers could head for the boneyard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The House Armed Services Committee will forbid the Air Force <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/12\/13\/the-air-force-needs-more-tankers-could-the-defense-industry-have-the-answer\/\" target=_blank>from retiring KC-135 tankers in fiscal 2021<\/a>, but will allow the service to divest some B-1 bombers and KC-10 tankers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its FY21 budget, the Air Force requested permission from Congress to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/federal-budget\/2020\/02\/10\/air-force-makes-reductions-to-b-1s-a-10s-global-hawk-drones-and-more-in-fy21-budget-request\/\" target=_blank>retire 17 of its oldest B-1B bombers<\/a> and a total of 29 aerial refueling tankers, comprising 13 KC-135s and 16 KC-10s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the House hopes to block the Air Force from mothballing any of its 398 KC-135s until after FY23, according to the HASC\u2019s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee\u2019s markup of the FY21 defense policy bill, which was obtained by Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2020\/06\/11\/senate-defense-bill-puts-limits-on-planned-air-force-aircraft-retirements\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/48407012051_f241326f96_k.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Senate defense bill limits Air Force\u2019s aircraft retirement plans<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Divestments of aircraft like the A-10, KC-10 and KC-135 have been restricted.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also would require the service to retain a total of 50 primary mission KC-10A aircraft in FY21; 38 primary mission KC-10A aircraft in FY22; and 26 primary mission KC-10A aircraft in FY23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force currently has 56 KC-10s that are considered primary mission aircraft, so the HASC\u2019s language would allow the service to retire six aircraft in FY21 and a total of 30 tankers over the next three years, said a source familiar with the bill. That will allow the service to retire roughly the same number of tankers as it proposed, but over a longer time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the B-1B, HASC would allow the Air Force to retire the 17 B-1B bombers as planned, as long it maintains a force of at least 24 combat-coded planes, meaning the aircraft designated for conducting a wartime mission. Currently, Congress mandates that the service keep at least 36 combat-coded B-1s, out of an inventory of 62 B-1s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The changes proposed by HASC will be debated within the Senate Armed Services Committee, which wrapped up its version of the defense authorization bill last week. SASC staffers told reporters June 11 that their proposed legislation does not stipulate what kind of aircraft the Air Force needs to keep, but does set a primary aircraft inventory requirement of 92 bombers and 412 tankers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The House committee\u2019s reluctance to begin retiring tankers was expected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/02\/25\/air-force-mulls-halt-to-tanker-retirements\/\" target=_blank>given U.S Transportation Command\u2019s concerns about a tanker shortfall <\/a>and ongoing complications with the Air Force\u2019s newest tanker, the KC-46. TRANSCOM listed $110 million in its unfunded priorities to buy back 13 KC-135 and 10 KC-10 tankers that the Air Force wanted to retire, claiming the divestments would create a \u201ccapacity bathtub\u201d and limit options for military mobilization if military leaders were \u201cconfronted with a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Worries about the tanker fleet being too small were also compounded by the slow pace in resolving ongoing KC-46 deficiencies, particularly with its remote vision system. Prime contractor Boeing has agreed to completely redesign the RVS, which is used by the boom operator to see outside of the aircraft during the refueling process. However, the new system <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2020\/06\/09\/the-air-force-delays-a-full-rate-production-decision-for-the-kc-46\/\" target=_blank>will not be ready<\/a> until at least 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without it, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein has said the aircraft <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2020\/03\/03\/a-fix-for-the-kc-46-is-already-a-year-late\/\" target=_blank>will not be ready to deploy<\/a> in normal operations, though it would be used in combat if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force argued that retiring some of its legacy aircraft \u2014 including the KC-135, KC-10 and B-1 \u2014 were necessary to free up funding to invest in future modernization priorities in areas such as space and joint all-domain command and control, with many of those efforts classified. However, with the B-1 bombers, leaders also argued the aircraft were becoming too difficult and expensive to maintain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe flew the B-1s very hard in the [U.S. Central Command area of responsibility], and that\u2019s what\u2019s caused some of the challenge they\u2019ve run into,\u201d Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Charles Brown told Defense News at Singapore Airshow on Feb. 10. Brown was confirmed as the next Air Force\u2019s next chief of staff earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo part of the discussion here is: Do you put a bunch of money in to preserve that at the expense of some other things you\u2019re going to be able to do to give you other capability?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The House Armed Services Commitee is wary of retiring tankers as problems with the KC-46 persist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[7,44,8,160,114,36,30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384,3361],"class_list":["post-61740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-budget","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-federal-budget","category-newsletters","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MS3XIA7H4JG2FCXRXP5EWVTK4Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2020\/06\/19\/house-to-block-kc-135-retirements-for-three-years-but-some-b-1-bombers-could-be-headed-for-the-boneyard\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>House to block KC-135 retirements for three years, but some B-1 bombers could head for the boneyard - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The House Armed Services Commitee is wary of retiring tankers as problems with the KC-46 persist.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House to block KC-135 retirements for three years, but some B-1 bombers could head for the boneyard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The House Armed Services Commitee is wary of retiring tankers as problems with the KC-46 persist.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2020\/06\/19\/house-to-block-kc-135-retirements-for-three-years-but-some-b-1-bombers-could-be-headed-for-the-boneyard\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-19T20:24:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T00:33:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Valerie Insinna, David B. 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