Originally Posted by
tdracer
I doubt the USAF is overly worried about losing a few 65-year-old KC-135s.
The E-3 AWACS is a different story... As k3k3 notes, they don't have many to start with, and IIRC, that $100 million price tag was when they were new (in 1980's money) - replacements will be much, much more.
Yes - they're precious and not to be taken for granted. It's not so much the money td (closer to 1b a piece for e7s?) it's the lead time.
Lucky they committed to a fleet of e7s a couple of years ago. If not they'd be waiting years for the supply chain to spool up.