Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, head of US Transportation Command, had the sympathetic ear of Rep. Vic. Snyder (D-Ark.) last week concerning the fate of the Air Force’s Johnson-era C-130E transports. During a Feb. 25 joint hearing of the House Armed Services air-land and seapower panels on the US military’s transportation efforts, McNabb made it clear that he would welcome Congress lifting the legal restrictions on those C-130Es no longer flying so that they could be removed from costly Type 1000 storage—essentially in mothballs—and fully retired and scrapped. “It really doesn’t make sense for us to put any kind of additional investment into the C-130Es,” he said during a dialogue with Synder. Lifting the storage mandate would allow these aircraft’s parts to be used as spares for others, McNabb said. And, some of these C-130Es, if given new center wing boxes, might have some resale value as foreign military sales assets for countries with less-demanding needs, he said. Snyder asked McNabb if he would provide the committee with “the language that you would think would be helpful”—meaning suggestions for wording in next year’s defense authorization bill to end the storage mandate. McNabb said he would. (Also see McNabb’s written testimony)
Boeing has only delivered two KC-46 tankers to the Air Force so far in 2021, despite USAF officials saying they expect that total per month, as the service has slowed the delivery pace of the aircraft. Though there are more aircraft ready at Boeing’s facilities, Air Mobility Command is slowing…