"KC-767 Supertanker instillation"

[contrail777]

"KC-767 Supertanker installation"

I guess MacDill is one of the so called Supertanker installations that will get the KC-767.

MacDill story

Does anyone know where the other two will be?

 

[DHPope93]

According to the AF Times, Grand Forks and Fairchild will be the other 2 KC-767 bases. Formal announcement comes June 18.


Peace,
DP

 

[Yahtzee]

Grand Forks???

DP,

Is this the latest AF move to keep another base open that should have been closed in lieu of Griffis?

Our former DO from Robins is here at Altus. He's going to be the OG at EGUN. He explained it makes no sense to put them in the middle of the country when they need to be on the coast.

His prediction: the Forks will never see AF 767s.

Yahtz

P.S. I saw two 0-4 pilots coming out of the Altus OSS building today in blues around lunchtime. I didn't want to ask..looks like Moosetracks was "dead on balls accurate". Here's hoping SWA start interviewing soon, in case this "blues" fever takes off like the SARS virus.

 

[DHPope93]

Re: Grand Forks???

DP,

Is this the latest AF move to keep another base open that should have been closed in lieu of Griffis?

El Forko Grande keeps haning on. Remember when Gen Krause came to Robins and said, "If I had my way, I'd close Grand Forks tomorrow" so that AMC could focus its forces on the coasts? Here's the article from Early Bird:

Early Game Plan For Leased 767s Eyes '06 Debut

By Laura M. Colarusso, Times staff writer

The Air Force has drawn up notional basing plans for its new KC-767 tanker fleet as well as a tentative strategy for retiring the older KC-135 fleet, sources on Capitol Hill say.

Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., likely will be the first installation to receive the new refuelers, according to a draft version of the tanker road map. The 92nd Air Refueling Wing, an active-duty unit, will receive 32 KC-767s, the first of which will be delivered in fiscal 2006, the road map states.

Air Force Times obtained a copy of the draft road map, which Maj. Gen. Kevin Chilton is using to brief members of Congress. Chilton is the Air Force director of programs at the Pentagon.

The Air Force declined to comment on the road map, which is dated June 3, except to say it is "an evolving document" that may change before it is formally announced June 18.

But sources on Capitol Hill say the Air Force has told lawmakers the road map is "practically a done deal." If changes are made, they likely will be slight, these sources added.

Defense Department officials cleared the Air Force in May to pursue a lease agreement with Boeing to begin recapitalizing the KC-135 tanker fleet, which averages about 42 years old. Under terms of the agreement, the Air Force will lease 100 converted 767 aircraft for $138 million apiece, which includes a $7 million finance charge per aircraft.

The lease concept has drawn ire from lawmakers who say it will cost more in the long run to lease the 767s than buy them outright. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been a particularly vocal critic of the leasing arrangement, charging that the leasing arrangement skirts congressional oversight.

Air Force Secretary James Roche has argued that the lease agreement allows the service to begin introducing new tankers to the fleet immediately. A traditional acquisition program would take years to deliver a new tanker, and the current fleet is no longer sustainable, he said.

"Corrosion damage is driving bills the [Air Force] could not budget for without retiring aircraft," the road map states, noting it costs approximately $3 million per jet to deal with the engine struts on the KC-135Es.

According to a Boeing official, the details of a lease have been hammered out. Once it is delivered to Capitol Hill, lawmakers have 30 days to review the contract before the Air Force signs the deal.

But even before the Air Force presented the lease deal to Congress, it began briefing key lawmakers on possible leasing plans. "What better way to get members behind the lease deal than to give them the jets up front?" a Senate staff member said.

Who gets what and when

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., had their offices briefed in early June, staffers for each lawmaker confirmed. Both senators have KC-135Rs at bases in their home states.

Robins Air Force Base, Ga., is likely going to lose its KC-135R fleet without a tanker replacement, according to the road map. In exchange for tankers, however, Robins will get E-10A, the first spiral of the Multi-mission Command and Control Aircraft. The MC2A, known as the command-and-control node in the sky that will eventually replace the Airborne Warning and Control System, will begin arriving at Robins in 2012.

As Boeing ramps up production, Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota will be the next to get KC-767s. Thirty-two are slated to arrive in Grand Forks over several years starting in fiscal 2008.

MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., also will receive 32 KC-767s. In 2011, the Air Force will receive its four backup inventory aircraft to round out the fleet.

At the end of the lease, the Air Force has the option to buy the aircraft for $4 billion.

Pete Aldridge, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has said the Air Force will not need to replace the KC-135 fleet on a one-for-one basis because the new 767 tankers are more capable. According to the road map, given identical missions to support four F-16s, four Tornados and one EA-6B surveillance aircraft, the Air Force estimates it would take one KC-767 to do the job of three KC-135Es.

"The 767 tanker will be configured to do both boom and drogue refueling, which the 135 is not," said one congressional source. "It can take as long as 24 hours to configure the 135 to prepare it for drogue refueling."

The Air Force also estimates that KC-767s will be available for missions more than 90 percent of the time. The KC-135Es are available only about 60 percent of the time.

Because the Air Force will be decreasing its overall number of tankers, the movement of aircraft has significant implications for lawmakers who are perennially concerned with bases in their home states losing aircraft and personnel. This year the stakes are even higher because the 2005 round of base realignment and closure looms in the not-too-distant future.

Between 2004 and 2006, the Air Force plans to retire 61 KC-135E models and convert seven more for backup inventory. During that time 48 KC-135R models will move from the active-duty inventory to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.

Although the tanker road map is an evolving document and subject to change, it lays out other major aircraft movements, including:

** Fairchild and McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., will both lose 18 KC-135Rs. Grand Forks will lose 12 KC-135Rs. Those 48 aircraft will be given to units at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.; Pittsburgh Air Force Reserve Station; Beale Air Force Base, Calif.; the Phoenix Air National Guard installation and the Salt Lake City, Utah, Air National Guard installation.

** These five bases will retire 48 KC-135E models by fiscal 2006. Thirteen more aircraft will be retired from five other installations, including Bangor International Airport, Maine, and Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

** McConnell will eventually become a "super-tanker" base with 64 KC-135R model tankers.

** The remaining 56 KC-135E models will be retired by fiscal 2008.

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Of course, this is pending the outcome of BRAC 2005, not to mention any other Congressional "oversight." Did our O-6 friend have any inside info, or just his WAG? Tell him I said hello.

Peace,
DP