Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

4. Department of Defense · Minor · Needs Congress

Increase Air Force airlift and aerial refueling capacity

Partially done

114 4. Department of Defense

“Increase Air Force airlift and aerial refueling capacity to support agile combat employment operations that generate combat sorties from a highly dispersed posture in both Europe and the Pacific.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    The FY2026 NDAA (P.L. 119-60) authorization table adds $200,000,000 for LC-130 aircraft and $250,000,000 for one additional C-40, but cuts KC-46A procurement by $300,000,000 for program delay - the aerial refuelling half of the ask moved backwards in the authorization.

  2. Partially done

    Section 20007 of the reconciliation act (P.L. 119-21) added airlift and tanker money: $440,000,000 to increase C-130J production, $116,000,000 for C-17A mobility aircraft connectivity and $84,000,000 for KC-135 mobility aircraft connectivity. Section 20009 funds the posture the Quote's purpose clause names - $450,000,000 for airfield development and $1,100,000,000 for infrastructure in the USINDOPACOM area of operations, and $100,000,000 for Air Force regionally based cluster pre-position base kits.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

Read from the enacted funding tables rather than from any program announcement, because the ask is about capacity, which Congress sets.

  • Two-part ask (airlift and aerial refueling). Airlift capacity was increased (C-130J production, LC-130, C-40); refueling capacity was not - the only tanker actions in the window are a connectivity upgrade to the existing KC-135 fleet and a $300M KC-46A cut. That split is what holds the item at partial.
  • Enacted quantities read, 2026-09-03, and they confirm the split. The FY 2027 P-1 (https://comptroller.war.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2027/FY2027_p1.pdf, April 2026) carries the FY 2026 Discretionary Enacted column for Aircraft Procurement, Air Force: C-130J went from 1 aircraft actually bought in FY2025 to 8 enacted for FY2026 (7 discretionary plus 1 from the P.L. 119-21 spend plan, $1,478,060K), while KC-46A held flat at 15 → 15 → 15 across FY2025 actuals, FY2026 enacted and the FY2027 request. Airlift up eightfold, refueling unchanged: exactly the two-part split the event notes describe, now on aircraft counts rather than dollars. The rung does not move.
Action
expand
Object
Air Force airlift and aerial refueling capacity
ID
210