DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

Task & Purpose.

Aerial refueling tankers are the backbone of U.S. airpower, but the tanker fleet is falling apart. Most of the jets are KC-135s, which are over 60 years old, and the jet that’s supposed to replace them, the KC-46, is plagued by development issues and is already running low on spare parts.

With no let-up in operational tempo, it’s becoming more difficult for the Air Force to maintain its tanker fleet. That’s the main takeaway from a Government Accountability Office report published earlier this year. The report said the tankers’ full mission capability rate — that is, their ability to carry out all of their assigned missions — has “decreased substantially” from 2019 through 2025.

Tankers are critical for the U.S. military, which relies on airpower. Most of the U.S. fighter fleet needs tankers to cross an ocean, and tankers provide a high degree of flexibility for everything else, from bombers to transports and spy planes.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2026 at 18:54 and is filed under Dystopia Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.