Jim Banks Asks Witness Why There Haven’t Been Improvements To The ‘Oldest Aircraft in The Fleet’

3/28/2025

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider military nominations on Thursday, Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) questioned a witness about why there haven't been any major improvements to the tankers in the Air Force.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:01Dr. Mink, the President has expressed historic confidence

00:07in the Air National Guard by nominating General Kane

00:10to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

00:13That's never happened before,

00:14to have a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

00:16come from the National Guard.

00:18And I wonder if you could talk about,

00:19if you could speak to the importance

00:20of the Air National Guard and the overall Air Force

00:25mission and the priority of the Air National Guard

00:28and what that will look like on your watch.

00:30Thank you for the question, Senator,

00:32and thank you for the opportunity to speak offline.

00:35The Air National Guard is critically important.

00:38It is a significant portion

00:42of the department's capabilities across the board

00:45from tankers to fighter aircraft.

00:50It will continue to be an important part of the department

00:56and we need to continue to support and work closely

00:59with the states and with Congress

01:00to make sure that stays so.

01:02Yeah, on that note, as you know,

01:04the Air Force is shrinking.

01:06We're not buying enough planes

01:07to keep the force at its current size,

01:11but that means that the Air Force carries,

01:14that the Air Force reserves and the National Guard

01:16carries a greater priority in the mission.

01:19How can we ensure that the Air National Guard

01:21is getting its fair share of new fighter aircraft?

01:26So, Senator, one of the things I plan to do,

01:29and again, take a holistic look

01:31across all the modernization activities

01:34to understand what we need from a numbers perspective,

01:37how fast do we need to build,

01:38both to support the active duty and the reserve units,

01:42and then I will advocate for whatever that requirement is

01:45or whatever the capability is

01:47and whatever the resources that are needed

01:48to meet the requirement,

01:50both up to the administration and to Congress.

01:52Well, I appreciate that.

01:53I look forward to working with you

01:54to make sure that the Air National Guard

01:57doesn't get the short end of the stick like it often does.

02:00Dr. Meek, your first Air Force assignment

02:02was flying KC-135s at Grissom Air Force Base in Indiana.

02:06Can you talk about how important the effort is there

02:09and why it matters not just to Indiana,

02:11but to the country and our national defense?

02:14Yeah, so this is probably an area

02:15I'm a little bit biased on

02:16since I started my career in tankers,

02:20but it is just, it has always been critical,

02:22both from a strategic nuclear mission

02:24as well from a conventional mission.

02:26One of the reasons we were pulled off of alert

02:28and sent to the Gulf War

02:29was because tankers were not only necessary

02:32for the strategic mission,

02:34but they were just critical for operations

02:35that were going on in the Middle East.

02:38So, yes, the tanker force has been and always will be,

02:43and to some degree, I think it's becoming more important

02:45given the Indopacom Theater

02:46where the ranges are even longer

02:49than what they are in some of the other theaters.

02:51So we need to continue.

02:53We need to ensure that the tanker force,

02:56both active and reserves,

02:57are able to support mission.

03:01Does it surprise you they're still flying

03:03the same planes there

03:05that they were flying when you were there?

03:07I have to admit, a little bit,

03:10but to some degree, not to dive too deep,

03:13but they had since zeroed time those airplanes

03:15when I was active duty when they re-engined them.

03:18So it was almost a brand new airplane, effectively,

03:20but it is still, you know, it's 60-odd years old.

03:22That's still pretty old,

03:24even if you've done a lot of maintenance on them, so.

03:26The Air Force refueling tankers are, on average,

03:29among the oldest aircraft in the fleet,

03:31and the Air Force isn't buying enough new tankers

03:34to replace the ones that were retiring.

03:36The same goes for Grissom,

03:37the place where, as you said, you started your career.

03:40Grissom has a more than two-mile runway,

03:43one of the longest in the United States of America.

03:46As far as I can tell,

03:47the Air Force needs new tankers for Grissom,

03:50which otherwise threatens to close down the base,

03:52and we would lose that runway,

03:53that important asset that we have.

03:56How should we be working

03:57to fix the Air Force refueler fleet?

04:02Right now, you know, the new tanker is the focus, right?

04:08We have to work with, both within the government

04:11and with the contractor, to get that program on track,

04:16to get the production rates up and drive the costs down

04:18so that we can afford to procure the tanker force

04:21that's necessary, both to expand and replace,

04:24as, you know, a great airplane,

04:27Senator, you're exactly right, it is getting pretty old.

04:29We're going to have to replace those,

04:31which means we need to get the new tanker

04:34into production, into full production.

04:36Well, I look forward to working with you.

04:38Your background is perfect for this job.

04:40You have my full support,

04:41and to each of the other three with us today,

04:44I don't have time to ask questions, too,

04:46but congratulations.

04:47I look forward to working with you, too.

04:49I yield back.

Jim Banks Asks Witness Why There Haven’t Been Improvements To The ‘Oldest Aircraft in The Fleet’

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