Salute!
To be honest, the Alabama tanker deal was harpooned by a certain contingent from state of Washington. TDRACER might be able to add to that opinion.
Secondly, the tactical air from here on will not be as dependent upon tankers as we saw in 'nam, Balkans, 'raqi I, 'raqi II and so forth. Just the retirement of the Double Ugly was a big factor when planning the war games, and I saw it at Red Flag and Green Flag in the 80's as the Vipers replaced the Phantoms. Only time I ever refueled was one time coming all the way from Hill in northern Utah and then back. We plugged going in to top off and came back without hitting the tanker. In 'nam, a Double Ugly would tank OTW from Korat to Saigon area ( figure 300 n.m. +/-), then tank coming back. Whereas we lowly SLUF's carried same load and no tanking required.
So the increasing fleet of F-35's is gonna reduce the tactical air tanker requirement except for the Super Bugs, old Eagles, old Vipers and the heavies that are based way far from the action. Besides, most of the Bugs will use buddy refueling from their carrier planes, including the new drone tankers. The USMC F-35's can use same tankers that our special ops folks use, and maybe they already have some of their own in their mobility packages.
Nevertheless, I do not like to see cutting down the fleet of any type unless you can maintain the same or better capabilites, versatility and cost.
Gums opines...