USAF Weighs Scrapping KC-10, A-10 Fleets
 

Shades of the Jag/Harrier debate...... "“You only gain major savings if you cut an entire fleet,” Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, told sister publication Air Force Times last week. “You can cut aircraft from a fleet, but you save a lot more money if you cut all the infrastructure that supports the fleet.”........

USAF Weighs Scrapping KC-10, A-10 Fleets

Faced with steep budget cuts and the desire to keep existing procurement initiatives on track, the US Air Force is considering scrapping its entire fleet of KC-10 tankers and A-10 attack jets, according to multiple military and defense sources. Also on the chopping block are F-15C fighter jets and a planned $6.8 billion purchase of new combat search-and-rescue helicopters, these sources say.

While these proposals are far from final, the options show the magnitude of the decisions facing Air Force leadership as the service wrestles with the prospect of cutting billions of dollars in planned spending over the next decade.

“You only gain major savings if you cut an entire fleet,” Gen. Mark Welsh, Air Force chief of staff, told sister publication Air Force Times last week. “You can cut aircraft from a fleet, but you save a lot more money if you cut all the infrastructure that supports the fleet.”............

The four-month-long Strategic Choices and Management Review — a DoD effort that looked at ways the Pentagon might have to modify its military strategy due to budget cuts — found the Air Force could cut up to five tactical aircraft squadrons, DoD announced in July. The proposed aircraft cuts, particularly the 340-aircraft A-10 fleet, are sure to face scrutiny in Congress. About half of the A-10 fleet resides in the Air National Guard. An Air Force proposal to cut five A-10 squadrons last year faced stiff opposition in Congress and from state governors. The Air Force Reserve also operates A-10s, which were heavily used to provide support to ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. A-10s also are based in South Korea. Sources say the Army is interested in obtaining A-10s should the Air Force decide to retire the twin-engine jets, which have been flying since the 1970s.

The Air Force operates 59 KC-10s, according to a service fact sheet. The tri-jet, which is based on the commercial McDonnell Douglas DC-10 jetliner, is the workhorse of the Air Force aerial refueling fleet. The tankers — equipped with both boom and hose-and-drogue refueling systems — can refuel Air Force, Navy and international military aircraft on a single sortie.

Also on the table is an unspecified number of cuts to the Boeing F-15C Eagle fleet. The Air Force has about 250 of the fighter jets, which, along with the F-22 Raptor, make up the service’s air-to-air fighter arsenal..........

Retiring the F-15C would save maintenance and upgrade costs, Rebecca Grant, president of IRIS Research and a former USAF official, said. The service could then use those funds to speed procurement of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. “It’s a gutsy move assuming a lot of risk, but there’s risk to all these scenarios,” Grant said. “It may be there is less risk retiring the F-15C right now than there is in getting the fleet we need some years down the road.”..............

The Air Force brass wants to continue funding Boeing KC-46A refueling tankers, Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighters and development of a new long-range bomber. Pentagon officials do not want to break the fixed-price tanker contract that requires Boeing to pay for development or production hiccups. The bomber is a key component in the Pentagon’s long-term, Pacific-focused strategy, and the F-35 is the only fifth-generation US combat fighter aircraft in production.

In the end, Congress will have the final say. Lawmakers were less than thrilled with the Air Force’s 2014 budget proposal, reversing several big-ticket items.

:eek::confused::ugh::rolleyes::D

We should get a bid in quick. Around the same as the harriers I would surmise..

USAF went through the same process 20 years ago, they scrapped the F-111 fleet.

They didn't really want to, as there was no replacement for the F-111, but the funding for the F-22 couldn't be risked. Difficult decisions...

Looks like the USAF is finally achieving its 1970's dream of flying only big and heavy glamorous fighter-jets, they where stopped in their tracks with the introduction of the LWF (F16) program and the A10 back then, an option they don't have today, unfortunately.

So they want to scrap the best tanker in the world?

Just drop the KC10s at Brize and the A10s at Leeming Lossie and reopen Honnington, I'm sure the RAF will pay for scrap value.

Folks....all this is being driven by........the F-35 Program which is a very huge Money Pit that shows no promise of producing the aircraft being promised.

That is where this money savings is going to be dumped.....to no good end.

The USAF would be far better off cutting the F-35 program.

SASless you are wrong again. You keep trying to use logic, reason and common sense when it is clearly a political and financial problem. :\

A10?
 

Always admired its hitting power and thought it had performed well in Afghanistan so quite surprised they are thinking of scrapping it while the B52 (in a different role) soldiers on?

We live in strange times

Agreed, and in context, inexpensive to operate too! Interesting times. How much are they selling them for??

Mel

It's only Maritime until you hit the shore.

A B52 can't do what an A-10 does and vice versa.

Absolutely agree 500N. I was only suggesting a possible line of reasoning as to why the B-52 might be spared the axe and the A-10 not.

I'm such an expert on this and all topics. I also don't mean demean the A10 but ...

I don't get the nostalgia for the A10 sometimes. It was designed in an era where the best general purpose armor killing gun was visually aimed. All the much talked about armor was to prevent it getting shot down by a common heavy machine gun that it would have to expose itself to during its attack.

Now sensors have gotten incredibly better. Computers too. One of the versions of cluster bomb is a case of independently targeting mini drones armed for one shot kills.

So if you don't need to get up close and personal you can lose the armor. Because of awesome high tech munitions you don't need the 30mm.

So, take the A10's remove the armor, gun and pilot. What's left? :)

What about this line and I am prepared to be shot down in flames

The A-10 and what it does has been superceeded by

- Apache and other gunships

- Drones / UAV'd with Hell Fires, better sensors and much muchlonger loiter time for CAS if needed.

- FJ with LGB

I was told by an OH-58D driver at Le Bourget 01, that a decade earlier post Cold War and Desert Storm, the O/A-10 was on the verge of being retired and the Army decided they wanted the airframes. The Air Force quickly retracted their decision :ugh:

It was reminiscent of the 50s and 60s battle between the two branches over what fixed wing assets the army could or could not have :cool: as the army were experimenting with fast jet FAC. They came in the form of the Fiat G.91, the N-156 / F-5, Cessna T-37 Tweet and A-4 Skyhawk (with modified twin wheel undercarriage for hard landings on rough unprepared airstrips)

The KC-10 retirement does not make sense, unless with the hundred or so KC-135R they figured that be enough. Like with the thoughts regarding their bomber force with getting rid of the B-1B and keeping the BUFF and B-2A.

Cheers

Agreed. Air to Air tanking is one of the Joint Force Multipliers that cannot be measured in dollar. Tanker assets are worth their weight in gold, many times over.

I'm sure I have read somewhere that the A10 fleet were about to be fitted with redesigned new wings, so no doubt they will scrap them shortly afterwards

Edit: link here:- Fairchild A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft to get new wings in 20-year extended life upgrade

I don't know, but add a microwave and get this!

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/a...spectre-44.jpg

The B Word :ok: