Congressional Block on Tanker Retirements Could Delay KC-46 | Defense News | defensenews.com: The KC-46A Pegasus tanker is one of the three major recapitalization priorities for the Air Force. But with Congress moving to block retirement of older tankers, the Pegasus could find itself short on maintainers as it attempts to come online.
The core of the issue begins with the battle between the Air Force and Congress over the A-10 close-air support plane, and the future of its maintainers. The service is arguing that the Warthog needs to be retired quickly in order to move those maintainers over to the F-35 and have them ready to go for the joint strike fighter’s operational date of August 2016.
Those against retiring the A-10 argue this is just a political stunt by the Air Force to try to galvanize support to retire the Warthog and highlight alternatives such as using contractors or reserve units. But it’s not just a matter of bodies, the service says, highlighting the lead time needed to train a maintainer in handling the complicated stealth fighter and the experience levels required.
Each side claims its own facts, but the basic logic of the service boils down to this: If Plane X cannot be retired, then its replacement, Plane Y, cannot get the maintainers it needs to become operational. If that logic is right, then the maintainers problem won’t be limited to the A-10 and F-35.
