The Air Force is adjusting its original plan for replacing Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve A-10s after several failed attempts to divest the fleet. A new Force Structure Action plan based on the Fiscal 2017 budget request details what Guard and Reserve units will fly once they lose their A-10s. USAF now plans to begin replacing the venerable Warthogs on a "squadron-by-squadron" basis in Fiscal 2018. The final aircraft is slated to retire in 2022 after the F-35 comes on line. For example, in 2018, the Reserve A-10 unit at Whiteman AFB, Mo., and the Guard unit at Fort Wayne ANGS, Ind., will both transfer to F-16s. In 2020, the unit at Martin State Airport in Maryland will lose 21 A-10s and gain eight C-130s. In 2021, Selfridge ANGB, Mich., will lose 21 A-10s and gain 8 KC-135s, while the unit at Gowen Field, Idaho, will lose 21 A-10s and gain 20 F-15Cs. The operational A-10 unit at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., will lose 25 Warthogs in Fiscal 2019 and will gain 21 F-16s the same year. The training units assigned to the base will be disbanded in Fiscal 2020 and 2021, losing a total of 58 A-10s, according to the plan. The Air Force will replace the units assigned to the Guard and Reserve, but there are currently no plans to replace Active Duty A-10 units. However, there is still time to come up with follow-on missions for the Active Duty if necessary, said Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes, the deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements. Active Duty A-10s are stationed at Davis-Monthan; Nellis AFB, Nev.; Moody AFB, Ga.; Eglin AFB, Fla.; and Osan AB, South Korea.
The Air Force will increase the number of legacy tankers in the reserve component even as it divests the KC-10 Extender in an effort to maintain the requirement of 479 refueling aircraft while it waits for the KC-46A to become operational, according to a new force structure plan released with the Fiscal 2017 budget proposal. Two bases in the reserve component will transfer to the service's aging KC-135 tanker and a base expecting to receive the KC-46A will lose its Stratotankers. The Air National Guard unit at Selfridge ANGB, Mich., will receive eight KC-135s in 2021 as it retires 21 A-10s, and the Reserve unit at Niagara Falls AFRS, N.Y., will retire eight C-130s and gain eight KC-135s in Fiscal 2017. Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., will lose four of its KC-135 tankers in 2017 and 12 in 2020, while it gains 12 KC-46s in 2020. The Air Force's force structure plans call for retiring 59 KC-10 Extenders, but it does not detail how the tankers will leave the service. The Air Force's KC-10 fleet is stationed at Travis AFB, Calif., and JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.
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