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Air Force says tanker corrosion not acute

By R. Jeffrey Smith
The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON — The Air Force disclosed yesterday that components in its refueling tankers have only occasionally been replaced because of age-related corrosion, an issue at the heart of debate about the urgency of replacing the tanker fleet with new aircraft from Boeing.

The Air Force made the disclosure to the Senate Armed Services Committee, after deleting the information from data given to the committee last week. The information was revealed after Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., a critic of the Air Force's tanker plans, raised the possibility of issuing a subpoena for it.

The backdrop for the debate is a deal, authorized by Congress two years ago but not yet funded, to replace at least 100 Air Force KC-135 tankers with modified Boeing 767s at a cost of more than $20 billion, using the largest lease ever signed by the government. The Bush administration has justified the deal partly by citing the danger of age-related corrosion in the tanker fleet.

The Air Force has not done a comprehensive study of the incidence of corrosion, but Air Force Secretary James Roche told Congress last month that he believes "corrosion is significant, pervasive and presents an unacceptable risk." That is why, he said, the Air Force backed a lease that would get new tankers into service sooner than a purchase that would cost about $6 billion less.

John Ullyot, a spokesman for Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said yesterday "the committee has an overall concern about corrosion data expressed by the Air Force, and we have asked for a study to verify the numbers."

McCain said: "The data is very revealing. It clearly indicates (corrosion) is a negligible concern here."

The Air Force initially told Congress the information supplied yesterday had been destroyed and the people who prepared it were not available, McCain said.

He said some Air Force technicians had told congressional staff they were proud of their ability to keep age-related corrosion in the existing tankers very low, a point at odds with the contentions of top Air Force officials.

McCain and other critics say the leasing arrangement is wasteful and that the existing fleet is in much better shape than the Air Force states.

The new numbers, prepared by Air Force logistics officials, are not comprehensive. They are based on service records of 260 planes that went through four maintenance depots for routine servicing between 2001 and 2003.

Four of the aircraft's nine major components were replaced because of corrosion in less than 2 percent of the fleet. Two components were replaced in about 6 percent of the planes, and two others were replaced in about 10 percent. One component was replaced in about 18 percent of the planes.

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