Fighter Purchases and Age

reply to post by paraphi


If we're going to keep flying KC-135s and KC-10s, I would say that we would need at least another 100-150 aircraft to add to that fleet. Be it bringing back -135s from the boneyard, or finding another way to add to the fleet. The USAF had a high of 732 aircraft. We don't need that many again, but we do need to be back over 500 again I think.

From an Air Force Times article:

A coming wave of fighter jet decommissionings and the lack of a firm plan to replace them has the Air National Guard on a steady path to a decade of mission cutbacks and deep reductions in the ranks of pilots and maintainers.

The decommissionings most widely and immediately affect the Guard’s fleet of F-16s, which comprise 495 of the component’s 746 fighter craft. Starting in 2011, F-16s pushing 30 years on the job start heading to the boneyard, a process that would eliminate the entire fleet by 2026, absent replacements.

Beyond a vague outline, there are no set plans to replace the aircraft, which generally is done as the active force picks up new aircraft and cycles its old fighters to the Guard. But currently, schedules to replace aircraft in the active force fall far short of keeping the Air Guard’s fleet at necessary levels.

“The [active] Air Force has their problems, but it’s more pronounced in the Air National Guard. We see the potential in some gaps in our fighters,” said Lt. Col. Don Bevis, a Guard Bureau liaison to Congress.

The gap is so pronounced that of the Air Guard’s 30 fighter units, more than half could be fighterless by 2022.

www.airforcetimes.com...

The ANG is expected to perform their mission with aging aircraft and there are currently no plans to replace them. In the 4th quarter of 2008, ANG units in Iraq and Afghanistan flew 4500+ hours, while the active forces flew 10,800+ hours during the same time frame.