Long reluctant to send venerable military aircraft to the bone-yard, lawmakers have decided to make it even more difficult for the Air Force to retire some of its oldest aircraft despite the high costs of keeping aging airframes flying. The annual Pentagon policy bill, signed into law in November by President Barack Obama, contains several provisions blocking or restricting retirements of a number of aircraft, including the A-10, EC-130H, KC-10 tanker, E-8 JSTARS, and E-3AWACS. The airframes, lawmakers have publicly argued, are simply too important to the military's mission to do without, even in an era of fiscal belt-tightening that military officials warn will force trade-offs between current and future capabilities. The retirement restrictions, though opposed by Air Force leaders, were to be expected, given the military's poor track record selling these proposals on Capitol Hill. But Congress went one step further than usual in the Fiscal 2016 defense authorization bill, inserting a provision in the nearly 2,000-page conference report that dictates the size of the Air Force fighter fleet.
展开▼
