Deja Vous All Over Again....

[Railrunner130]

From airforce-magazine.com March 17, 2010

More Than Enough C-130s: Mobility Capabilities and Requirements Study 2016, the Pentagon's in-depth look at its transport future needs, shows that the US military currently has more C-130 transports than it requires. The existing inventory stands at 401 tails, a number that exceeds the highest projected demand for 335 of them in the most stressing warfighting scenarios, according to the document's unclassified executive summary. This peak demand would occur during surge airland/airdrop operations, it states. At the same time, MCRS-16 notes that "the C-130 crew force structure cannot sustain steady-state operations in combination with a long-duration irregular warfare campaign," based on current Total Force planning objectives. Many of the C-130s in the Air Force's inventory are old and the service is retiring some of them while upgrading others and bringing on new C-130J airframes. (See Not Enough Tankers above) (For more on MCRS-16, see Overcapacity.) (MCRS 2016 executive summary)

We heard this in something like 1992. That's how the H3 production ended and the J-model started.

[Dan Wilson]

What a crock of......

Dan

[jimsmith130]

When asked how many C-130s are needed the combatant commanders standard answers have always been something like, "I don't know how many we need, but when I need them, I want a lot of them."

This article which just came out in Defense News last week kind of proves that point.

Combatant Commanders Want C-130s for Afghanistan

By KATE BRANNEN

Following a successful demonstration in Iraq, commanders in Afghanistan are going to request more C-130 aircraft to be used for time-sensitive, mission-critical cargo delivery, the U.S. Army's top logistician said.

"We're about to get a request for it," Lt. Gen. Mitchell Stevenson, deputy chief of staff for logistics, said March 17.

After the 2010 budget decision transferred the Joint Cargo Aircraft and its mission to the Air Force, the Army and the Air Force wrote a new concept of employment for how the aircraft would be operated now that it would no longer be in the Army's inventory.

Last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pledged that the Army would not suffer in terms of support because of the decision, "and the Air Force would be just as responsive as if we owned the aircraft ourselves," Stevenson said.

That new concept of employment was tested in Iraq, using the C-130 as a surrogate for the Joint Cargo Aircraft, last October through December.

"It worked just like we wanted it to," Stevenson said.

After the demo, the Army told commanders in Afghanistan that it could relieve some of the burden being placed on CH-47 Chinook helicopters, which are seeing record use in theater, by providing more C-130s, Stevenson said.

"The last I checked, the Air Force has about 400 C-130s and we have less than 50 in Southwest Asia today," he added.

During a video teleconference about a week ago, commanders in Afghanistan said that the idea made sense to them and they are going to send a request through U.S. Central Command, Stevenson said.

Once a request is received, the approval could happen in a matter of weeks, he said.

"Then the question would be how quickly can the aircraft be called up," Stevenson said. "We're talking about probably reserve crews - Air Guard crews - because the Air Force doesn't have a lot of active-component C-130 capability. So they'll have to notify the unit that they're being called up."

In Afghanistan, the Army spends just under $8 million a month on contractor fixed-wing and rotary-wing air support. The introduction of more C-130s is intended to bring that cost down.

"That's exactly why we proposed it, because we're interested in doing two things: saving a little bit of money and taking a load off of CH-47s," Stevenson said.

[SEFEGeorge]

We heard this in something like 1992. That's how the H3 production ended and the J-model started.

That's supposed to be DeJa Moo. Think we've heard this BS before.

[Dan Wilson]

The last I checked, the Air Force has about 400 C-130s and we have less than 50 in Southwest Asia today,

Subtract ALL the SOF birds, subtract all birds in PDM or unscheduled depot mx, subtract the birds that are permanently AFU awaiting approval to ship to the boneyard then you need to subtract all the smaller inspections/refurbs and things that suck birds up for a week or more and what does that number drop too?

Bet its a whole lot less than 400 available at any one time.

Dan

[bobdaley]

Active Duty Airlift slicks

Dyess 2 Sq H's

Yokota 1 Sq H's

Ramstein 1 Sq J's

Little Rock 2 Sq E's 1 Sq H's 1 Sq J's

Total 8 squadrons about 106 aircraft including all the ones in PDM, regular broke, etc.

We had almost that many on base at CCK in 1972, 6 Squadrons including Rote and about 100 aircraft.