Air Force photo

KC-135 refueling an F-16 fighter

CAPITOL HILL: Senate Armed Service Committee members pushed back hard today on Air Force 2021 plans to retire KC-135 and KC-10 tankers, questioning Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein about efforts to speed availability of the troubled KC-46.

“Many of us are very, very concerned,” said Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. Indeed, both Democrats and Republicans piled on the issue — asking myriad pointed questions about capability shortfall and the schedule for addressing the problems with Boeing’s troubled KC-46.

Goldfein admitted that the gap in tanker capability resulting from the planned KC-10 and KC-135 retirements prior to the availability of the KC-46 comprises one of the biggest risks inherent in the 2021 budget request, as the service tries to balance current needs against modernization imperatives.

The Air Force’s 2021 budget would retire 16 KC-10s and 13 KC-135s. The move prompted Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of Transportation Command, to call on Congress to add back funds for at least 10 KC-10s and all the KC-135s, citing aerial refueling as his top unfunded priority.

The planned cuts, prior to the projected availability of the KC-46, will “create a capacity bathtub with significant impacts to Combatant Command daily competition and wartime missions, and negatively impact senior leader decision space for mobilization when confronted with a crisis,” Lyons explained.

Pressed by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on when the KC-46 will be fully ready, Goldfein said the service is in final negotiations with Boeing about a “serious fix” for the Remote Visual System that currently has a dangerous blind spot when monitoring the boom during refueling. “We are targeting the ’23/’24 timeframe to have a fix in place,” he added.

Shaheen was less than impressed. “That’s significant — three or four years until we get to capability!” To which Goldfein acquiesced: “It is.”

Barrett stressed that getting the KC-46 fixed and into the fleet is “one of the highest priorities in the building.” She explained that although the aircraft is “at the moment not meeting all the requirements,” it is in the process of being certified to carry passengers and cargo, and to undertake air medical and some training missions.

The Air Force, she testified, expects Boeing to put forward a solution for the Remote Visual System — that currently has a dangerous blind spot when monitoring the boom during refueling — by the end of the month.

Goldfein, who was making what is probably his last Air Force posture hearing before the SASC, said he recently met with new Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who assured him that fixing the KC-46 is the company’s top military priority. “I have seen a change in the behavior of that company since he took over,” he said. “They have a serious fix on the table.”

At the same time, Goldfein said, there still are “profound problems” with the aircraft. The faulty camera means that “the boom operator struggles to see the last 10 feet between the boom and the aircraft” during refueling, he explained, leading to “a high potential for striking the aircraft.”

Goldfein stressed that he has assured Lyons that, in a crisis, KC-46 aircraft would be made available, even if they are not completely fixed.

“I would put every KC-46 into the fight,” he said. “I would not put them into day-to-day operations,” he added, but “I would put them into a high-end fight.”

In a similar vein, Republican Sen. Martha McSally pushed the Air Force leaders on its 2021 budget plans to retire 44 A-10 close support aircraft, while at the same time modernizing the remaining wings under a $1 billion contract with Boeing granted in August 2019. Congress long has been loathe to let the service rid itself of the aging and vulnerable — but much beloved — Warthogs.

McSally reiterated that Congress has yet to receive the reports it demanded explaining the plan for maintaining close air support using the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — saying that the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was very clear that the Air Force cannot retire “even one aircraft” until those clauses are met. Goldfein explained that DoD would be reporting to the SASC on Sept. 1, and reiterated that DoD’s legal counsel signed off on the 2021 budget plan as it would not go forward unless Congress approves.

Senators also expressed concerns about F-35 sustainment costs. Ranking Minority Member Sen. Jack Reed asked bluntly: “Can we afford to buy more when we can’t afford to fly them?”

Goldfein said that he personally has weighed in with the CEO of prime contractor Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson — as well as the CEOs of all the key subcontractors — to tell them in no uncertain terms that the current sustainment costs of $35,000 per hour are simply too high.

“Current flying hour costs are unsustainable,” Goldfein said. Lockheed Martin is, he added “taking sustainment costs seriously.”

To no one’s surprise, the other big heartburn issue for the SASC was President Donald Trump’s plan to take $3.8 billion in 2020 funds from DoD, largely from the National Guard and weapons systems, to pay for the southern border wall. A number of Democratic senators pilloried the plan, citing negative affects on guard capabilities in their states.