Air National Guard wants Commercial Aircraft as Tankers.

• Author: Book, Elizabeth G.
• Position: Washington pulse

The Air National Guard supports the use of commercial Boeing 767 jets as tanker platforms to replace existing C-130s and KC-135s.

"We need to purchase a new wide-body aircraft," said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver, the director of the Air National Guard. "We need a tanker not only with tanking capabilities, but with four missions--tanker fuel, cargo, passenger and air-med," he said. "A commercial wide-body aircraft could do just that."

The current fleet is aging, he said. "We are just about maxed out."

The first step in the modernization of the tanker fleet, he stressed, would be to buy a commercial aircraft that can fly long distances.

"Our tanker fleet is long-haul," he said. "We have become an expeditionary force, so everything we do, we need to get there."

The Air Force KC-135E tanker, based on the Boeing...