Boeing has submitted a proposal to the Air Force to provide contractor logistics support services for the T-1A training aircraft fleet, the company said in a release earlier this month. The Air Force is expected to choose a contractor for this work for an eight-year term next summer. If selected, Boeing said it would provide field service personnel, manage a parts warehouse, issue and replace parts, and overhaul major aircraft components for 179 T-1As at five bases: Columbus AFB, Miss., Laughlin AFB, Tex., Randolph AFB, Tex., Vance AFB, Okla., and NAS Pensacola, Fla. The company already provides CLS for platforms such as the C-40, E-4B, KC-10, and T-38. The T-1A, which entered service with the Air Force in 1993 and passed a million flying hours in 2005, is used in specialized undergraduate pilot training for students selected to fly airlifters or tanker aircraft. It also is used to support navigator training.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.