Loaded questions: Air Force struggles to define future airlift needs.

• Author: Wagner, Breanne
• Position: COMBAT AIRLIFT

The Air Force is walking a political tightrope as it tries to garner support for multibillion-dollar investments in new cargo aircraft while it copes with cost overruns and tightening budgets. Service officials assert that the ongoing wars and planned increases to the size of the Army and the Marine Corps will result in growing demands for military airlift.

Transport aircraft--both long-haul strategic and short-range tactical assets--have been the source of contentious debate on Capitol Hill in recent weeks. These aircraft are critical wartime resources but also garner interest for the wealth of jobs they provide to lawmakers' home districts.

During the past two years, the Air Force has been seeking to end production of its workhorse strategic transport, the C-17 Globemaster, as it works to modernize its aging C-5 long-haul Galaxy aircraft. Additionally, it is looking to buy new C-130J tactical transports and a new smaller cargo aircraft, to replace dozens of aging C-130s that lawmakers won't allow the service to retire.

As Air Force officials are fond of saying, the service is trying to find the "right mix" of airlift assets. Yet the right mix concept is being held hostage by a host of problems.

A study of global military transportation needs in 2005 led the Air Force to set a requirement of about 300 strategic transport planes. That would include 180 C-17s and 112 upgraded C-5's, said Capt. Anna Carpenter, an Air Force spokesperson. That combination was considered to be within "acceptable risk,'" she said.

Since then, however, the fleet of C-17s has been worn down by the demands of ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is "approaching the end of its service life at an accelerated rate," Carpenter noted. The Air Force recently estimated it needs anywhere between 292 and 383 strategic transport aircraft.

Last year, California lawmakers saved Boeing's C-17 production line in Long Beach from a projected shutdown in 2009 by adding an extra $2.1 billion to the Air Force budget for 10 more aircraft--boosting the size of the fleet to 190. Boeing again announced in February that it might be forced to close the line unless more aircraft are bought.

The Air Force asked for two more C-17s in its 2008 "unfunded priorities" list, Carpenter said.

But the fiscal year 2008 budget only provided $653.5 million for removing and shipping C-17 tooling and equipment into storage, a Pentagon budget document said, which essentially prepares for the plant's...