RAF Rivet Joint

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Originally Posted by RAFEngO74to09

Block 45 upgrades on KC-135Rs (and special variants) are intended to keep 300 of them in service to 2050 alongside the KC-46 - the KC-10 will be retiring first.
USAF Breathing New Life Into Ancient KC-135 Tankers With This New Glass Cockpit - The Drive

These aircraft don't get used anywhere near as heavily as their commercial counterparts, usually only a few hundred hours per year. So there is plenty of fatigue life in the airframes to go out to 2050, provided corrosion is aggressively controlled.
In that context, the USAF statistics of improved in service rates are really besides the point. An airplane may be perfectly serviceable except that corrosion has made it structurally deficient.
The Omaha World Herald highlights corrosion potentials as a serious issue, but only an independent inspection would settle that.