The Air Force\u2019s top mobility leader would like decades-old air transports and tankers to be replaced sooner than the late 2030s, as currently planned.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gen. Reba Sonkiss, the interim head of Air Mobility Command, told reporters on Tuesday that the service needs to seriously discuss what the future replacement for the decades-old C-5 and C-17 transports will be. She added that tankers, such as the KC-135, are on track to refuel next-generation bombers as they near a century of service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must pay attention to that strategic capability,\u201d Sonkiss said at the Air and Space Forces Association conference here. \u201cWe’re, again, woefully behind on the modernization front for our strategic air forces.\u201d<\/p>\n
A\u00a0solicitation memo<\/a>\u00a0late last year detailed the service\u2019s plans to keep the C-5 and C-17 flying until 2045 and 2075, respectively. A next-generation airlift is not expected to be fielded until at least 2038.<\/p>\n Sonkiss said the service particularly needs to replace its KC-135s: \u201cI cannot have a 90-year-old tanker refueling a B-21, and if you do the math, as we reach the end of programs for things, that\u2019s the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n She said Air Mobility Command would also be open to a \u201cfamily of systems\u201d approach as a possible refueling replacement, instead of just one aircraft.<\/p>\n Sonkiss comments were after Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told reporters on Tuesday that he was satisfied that the KC-46 Pegasus could replace the KC-135, and that he was not looking at\u00a0recently unveiled\u00a0alternatives.<\/p>\n Last year, the Air Force cancelled a \u201cbridge buy\u201d for an interim tanker as the service pursued a new-generation refueler\u00a0in a program called NGAS, which netted just $13 million in the 2026 budget request. Instead, the service decided to\u00a0buy additional\u00a0KC-46s, despite the program\u2019s\u00a0\u201ccategory 1 deficiencies,\u201d\u00a0costly accidents\u00a0and\u00a0financial woes\u00a0for Boeing. On Tuesday, Meink described the long-troubled Pegasus as a \u201cgreat airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n The efforts to replace the airlifters,\u00a0dubbed NGAL, is in the early stages with an analysis of alternatives planned for 2027, the\u00a0solicitation memo\u00a0said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat conversation, in my book, can’t happen enough or can’t happen fast enough,\u201d Sonkiss said.<\/p>\n The Air Mobility leader praised the C-5 as a \u201ccritical tool\u201d but recognized its longstanding problems. The aircraft, first fielded in the 1970s, achieved only a\u00a048 percent<\/a>\u00a0mission-capable rate as of 2024. Air Force Life Cycle Management has a two-year-old effort,\u00a0 the\u00a0\u201cDrive to 55\u201d campaign<\/a>, to boost that rate to 55 percent.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody in this room knows that aircraft doesn’t perform at the level we would like it to, and we spent a lot of money trying to make that happen,\u201d Sonkiss said. \u201cIt is an old airplane.We have to get after what next looks like, and we can’t wait until we’re shoveling it into the boneyard before we get to that discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n The C-17, which entered service in 1995, boasts a mission-capable rate of 75 percent. But between 2020 and 2024, Globemasters were involved in 21 class-A mishaps\u2014the deadliest and costliest incidents\u2014more than any of the military\u2019s most-used planes, according to\u00a0Pentagon data\u00a0acquired by\u00a0Defense One\u00a0<\/em>last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have asked it to do a lot of things and it’s done more than we ever planned for when we bought that airplane,\u201d Sonkiss said. \u201cIt has performed flawlessly, but it’s getting old too.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Meink, other service leaders at the conference emphasized modernizing and sustaining the service\u2019s existing aircraft.<\/p>\n