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Air Force Reserve forms KC-135 associate unit partnerships

  • Published
ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. --  The Base Realignment and Closure process and other transformation efforts are making major changes to Air Force Reserve Command's KC-135 community.

As part of the BRAC process, the command will partner with an active-duty unit at MacDill AFB, Fla., by forming a classic associate KC-135 air refueling unit.

The Reserve's 927th ARW at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich., will realign to establish the Reserve unit with the active force's 6th Air Mobility Wing at MacDill AFB. The associate unit is expected to be operational by next summer.

"Lots of construction is required to support the new Reserve unit at MacDill," said Lt. Col. John Rocchio, assistant chief of programs division, Air Force Reserve Command headquarters.

"It has all been funded but it still needs to be built," he said. "Our reservists there will have to be flexible and work with their interim facility plans until their full-time locations become complete."

Under the classic associate unit relationship, MacDill's active-duty unit will keep principal responsibility for the aircraft and will share flying and maintaining the aircraft with the Reserve unit.

The reverse is happening at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., next summer.

The Reserve's 916th ARW will retain its fleet of KC-135 aircraft and share them with an active-duty unit at Seymour Johnson AFB.

Under active associate unit relationships, Reserve units have primary responsibility for the aircraft and share them with active-duty units.

Last year the Air Force Reserve expanded the size of its KC-135 air refueling force at March Air Reserve Base, Calif., when the command's 939th ARW at Portland International Airport, Ore., turned over four KC-135 aircraft to the Reserve's 452nd AMW.

Reservists in the air mobility wing at March ARB also fly the C-17 Globemaster III, the Air Force's newest transport aircraft.

Last year under BRAC Portland's 939th ARW also turned over four KC-135s to the Reserve's 507th ARW at Tinker AFB, Okla. The 507th ARW is teaming up with the Air National Guard, which is forming an air reserve component associate unit.

Tinker's Reserve unit will retain its KC-135 air refueling aircraft, while the Air National Guard will realign its 137th Airlift Wing at Will Rogers Air Guard station, Okla., to form an air reserve component associate unit relationship with the Reserve unit at Tinker AFB. This process has already started and should be completed early next year.

The air reserve component associate unit concept is similar to the active associate and classic associate relationships in that one air reserve component retains ownership of the aircraft and another unit shares in flying and maintaining the aircraft as an air reserve component associate unit.

Forming associate unit partnerships streamlines mission capability and makes the Air Force Reserve more fiscally efficient, according to Lt. Gen. John A. Bradley, chief of Air Force Reserve and AFRC commander.

"The associate unit program begun in 1968 has served the Air Force and the Air Force Reserve well over the years," General Bradley said. "Associate units make good business sense because they capitalize on the experience and skills of reservists, many of whom were on active duty before joining the Air Force Reserve. Through the associate unit programs, that training investment can be multiplied over and over as people come and go in a unit."

The mix of active and reserve component experience at associate units help to expand the KC-135 mission and makes for better use of resources to achieve air refueling goals globally, said Air Force officials. (Air Force Reserve Command News Service)