The issue is NOT the age of the aircraft - the Herc J's serviceability is as bad as, if not worse than, the K's. There are 2 reasons for this:
1) Notice how commercial operators do not insist on an artificial AF/BF cycle - we tinker with and service our aircraft TOO MUCH, and fly them TOO LITTLE. Their aircraft are constantly in the air, until they need to go into the sheds for, er...scheds. If you turn aircraft off and leave them sitting around, they will break, simple as that.
What we need to do is up our crew / aircraft ratios. Airlines will typically run with an 8:1 ratio - the Herc fleet currently runs with 1.75:1. With more crews, we can work the aircraft harder. Compare the serviceability rates of deployed aircraft (Basrah, Balad, MPA, etc) that typically work hard with the frames that get left lying around at Lyneham. More flying hours, more crew training, more offers of AT capability to the wider defence community, etc etc. One of the problems currently being masked by the aircraft serviceability issues is the real lack of crews (or more specifically the lack of crews qualified and current for certain tasking). Yes, I know we don't exactly work the same way as an airline, but it is something worth bearing in mind.
2) The second reason for woeful serviceability, again nothing to do with the age of the aircraft, is the ridiculous spares policy. Basically, we no longer hold a sufficient reserve of spares to cover contingiencies - "Just-In-Time" does NOT work in this environment. This will affect ANY aircraft we operate, whether it is 40 years old or 40 days old - I offer you once again the J vs K serviceability as an example.
It is a sad indictment indeed when a single incident (mover crashing steps into Air Atlanta's SA 747 airbridge) can have such far-reaching ramifications (many many people late into / out of MPA, lack of freight delivery, pulling of Tristars from other tasks to cover, Tristars going u/s and delaying at virtually every stop, and so on and so forth). We truly have reached the bottom of the barrel on the AT fleet - sadly I don't think a fleet of shiny new aircraft is going to help.
16B