Airmen of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 121st Air Refueling Wing are spending the next two months, rather than the usual two to three weeks, at Andersen AFB, Guam, to help fill the void left by ANG KC-135 units unable to deploy. TSgt. Steven Wilson reports that those units are either disbanding or undergoing mission conversions, courtesy of BRAC 2005 and ongoing Air Force modernization efforts.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.