Air Force Under Pressure As Airlift Capacity Falls.

• Author: Tegler, Jan

The Air Force's fleet of airlifters --roughly half the size it was during the 1990s--has been operating at high tempo for two decades, wearing out airplanes with no near-term prospect of replacement and further cuts to the force planned, despite projected demand for airlift diat will operate in increasingly contested environments.

It's a problem Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, commander of U.S. Transportation Command, highlighted in statements before the Senate Armed Services Committee March 29. The Air Force's largest airlift fleet, the C-130 force, has experienced the greatest change "of all mobility priorities" over recent decades, losing almost 50 percent of its capacity "from a high of well over 500 aircraft in Operation Desert Storm to the current programmed levels," she testified.

Currendy, the Air Force has 279 C-130s. The shift away from a "two major war sizing construct" and a deemphasis on other high priority global missions drove reductions, Van Ovost said.

Lt. Gen. David Nahom, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, testified in June 2021 before a Senate Armed Services Committee's airland subcommittee that the service's goal is a fleet of 255 C-130s, with 163 C-130Js--the newest version of the C-130 first delivered in 1999--and 92 C-130H model Hercules produced between 1965 and 1996.

But diat goal hasn't been realized so far according to the fiscal year 2023 Air Force budget request, which shows a capacity of 271 C-130 aircraft.

Cuts to airlift capacity aren't limited to the C-130 fleet. Since 1970, the Air Force has operated the C-5 Galaxy as its strategic airlifter. A total of 131 were built, but just 52 modernized C-5Ms remain in service. The Air Force now has 223 Boeing C-17s serving alongside the C-5 fleet.

The C-17 and C-5 are out-of-production, so the service has all of the Globemasters and Galaxies it will ever get. Lockheed Martin's C-130 is the only U.S. airlifter with an active production line. According to Lockheed Martin spokesperson Stephanie Stinn, only 15 airlift-dedicated C-130 variants remain to be delivered under the Air Force's current program of record to the Air National Guard.

The numbers show a decline in airlift capacity at time when demand for airlift looks likely to increase. America's pullout from Afghanistan was expected to alleviate some of the pressure on airlift. But with ongoing operations in Europe to bolster NATO and support Ukraine and a national defense strategy that calls...