Sean Bednarz

This report provides select results from a RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) project titled Reducing Operating and Support Costs for the Mobility Air Forces sponsored by AMC/A5/8 and AMC/A4. This report examines the cost and readiness implications of consolidating maintenance occupational specialties for new and legacy mobility fleets. Implications are derived from an assessment conducted for the KC-135 fleet.

The Air Force is considering upgrades to the KC-10 in several areas: avionics, command and control, multipoint refueling, defensive systems, and compatibility with night-vision systems. An assessment of options to upgrade the KC-10 weighed the costs and potential benefits of the upgrades against demands in homeland defense, theater employment, deployment, and air bridge operations and KC-10 roles (refueling only, airlift only, or dual-role).

Without modernization, the U.S. Air Force's KC-10 air refueling fleet will not be in compliance with upcoming air traffic mandates regulating the minimum communication, navigation, and surveillance capabilities of aircraft flying in certain regions and altitudes. A detailed analysis of the cost-effectiveness of KC-10 modernization showed that, overall, the required upgrades would result in net cost avoidance over the life of the fleet.