S.Amdt. 2730

SA 2730. Mr. LEE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to
amendment SA 2282 proposed by Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr. McCain)
to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2019
for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy,
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

Strike section 1034 and insert the following:

SEC. 1034. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE BASING OF KC-46A AIRCRAFT
OUTSIDE THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES.

(a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
(1) the Department of Defense is continuing its process of
permanently stationing KC-46A aircraft at installations in
the continental United States (CONUS) and forward-basing
outside the continental United States (CONUS);
(2) air refueling capability is a critical component of
logistical capacity, and the Air National Guard fulfills the
majority of air refueling requirements;
(3) section 144 of the National Defense Authorization Act
for Fiscal Year 2018 (Public Law 115-91) required the
Secretary of Defense to carry out a mobility capability and
requirements study that includes an assessment of the air
refueling tanker aircraft military requirement; and
(4) upon completion of the study, it would beneficial to
know how the Air Force will support the requirements for
force structure and strategic laydown of aircraft necessary
to implement the study.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the Secretary of the Air Force, as part of the strategic
basing process for KC-46A aircraft, should continue to place
emphasis on and consider the benefits derived from locations
outside the continental United States that--
(1) support day-to-day air refueling operations, operations
plans of the combatant commands, and flexibility for
contingency operations, and have--
(A) a strategic location that is essential to the defense
of the United States and its interests;
(B) receivers for boom or probe-and-drogue training
opportunities with joint and international partners; and
(C) sufficient airfield and airspace availability and
capacity to meet requirements; and
(2) possess facilities that--
(A) take full advantage of existing infrastructure to
provide--
(i) runway, hangars, and aircrew and maintenance
operations; and
(ii) sufficient fuels receipt, storage, and distribution
capacities for a 5-day peacetime operations stock; and
(B) minimize overall construction and operational costs.
(c) Briefing on Air Refueling Capabilities.--Not later than
March 1, 2019, the Secretary of the Air Force shall provide
in coordination with the Committee on Armed Services of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed Services
of the Senate a briefing for Congress on how the Air Force
will support the requirements for aerial refueling,
including--
(1) the current and future laydown plans for air refueling
locations;
(2) an overview of air refueling operations per air
refueling wing locations to include the number of sortie
requests, the number of sorties fulfilled, and the locations
or missions the sorties supported;
(3) fully mission capable and aircraft availability rates
for all air refueling wings over the past 5 years;
(4) an assessment of how the Air National Guard force
structure, across all States and territories, can be
leveraged to support current and emerging air refueling
requirements;
(5) a description of the long-term plan to maintain
adequate refueling capability to meet current and emerging
requirements;
(6) a review of manpower levels across the air refueling
force, an identification of current and projected skill set
gaps, and recommendations on how to address these gaps; and
(7) an overview of how the Air Force will determine the
disposition of KC-135 aircraft as they are replaced by the
arrival of KC-46 aircraft.

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