The C-130 and KC-135 aircraft are important parts of DOD’s air mobility force. The C-130’s primary role is to provide airlift for theater cargo and personnel. The KC-135 aircraft is the Air Force’s core refueler. The majority of these aircraft are in the reserve component, as shown in table 1. Reserve component C-130 flying squadrons generally have 8 aircraft, and KC-135 squadrons generally have 10. Active force C-130 squadrons typically have 14 aircraft, while active KC-135 squadrons have 12. A reserve component wing comprises flying squadrons and other nonflying squadrons. Generally, reserve component wings have one flying squadron, unlike active wings, which generally have two to three flying squadrons. Some of the nonflying squadrons, such as maintenance, military police, and logistics squadrons, are directly related to the flying squadron, while others, such as medical, civil engineering, and communications squadrons, are not directly related. Reserve component C-130 and KC-135 aircraft are dispersed throughout the continental United States and Hawaii and Alaska. There are 22 states whose National Guard wings have C-130 aircraft, and 19 states whose National Guard wings have KC-135 aircraft. Seven states have both. There are nine states that have Air Force Reserve wings with C-130 aircraft and five states that have Air Force Reserve wings with KC-135 aircraft. Seven of the Guard wings with KC-135 aircraft are located on military bases and 12 are located with civilian airports. All six Reserve wings with KC-135 aircraft are located on military bases. Most Guard wings with C-130 aircraft, 20 of 23, are located with civilian airports. Half of the 10 Reserve wings with C-130 aircraft are located on military bases, and the other half are with civilian airports. Several locations maintain both Guard and Reserve wings. Though reserve component members are sometimes thought of as weekend warriors, about one quarter to one third of wing personnel are full-time military or civilian employees. These personnel are concentrated in areas such as maintenance, logistics, and security squadrons and the wing staff. The balance of wing personnel are part-time military personnel and are likely to have full-time employment in addition to their military responsibilities. Larger-sized reserve component units would still be able to perform peacetime missions. When reserve component C-130 and KC-135 units have participated in peacetime deployments in Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, and Panama they have done so on a rotational basis. However, unlike the active Air Force, Reserve and Guard rotations are not assigned completely to a single flying squadron or wing, which makes the squadron size less important. In a typical reserve component rotation, while one wing is designated to lead the mission, it depends on many other wings to provide aircraft and personnel. For example, the reserve component was assigned to support operations in Saudi Arabia for a 3-month period. Personnel and aircraft from 19 Guard wings were typically rotated for 15 to 30 days to staff a flying squadron of 8 aircraft. A similar practice was used in Bosnia and Panama. Rotations are done in this manner because participation by reserve component members without a presidential call-up is voluntary. To obtain the complement of personnel needed, individual volunteers from many units are necessary. Thus, the number or size of units is not as important as the number of people that volunteer. Unit officials from several wings cited advantages in increasing the number of aircraft in a flying squadron. These included increased training opportunities and improved scheduling flexibility. Creating fewer larger-sized flying squadrons should have little impact on wartime missions as well. Wartime requirements for C-130 and KC-135 aircraft are not typically defined by the number of squadrons or wings but by the number of aircraft. For example, the July 1996 Joint Chief of Staff’s Intratheater Lift Analysis expresses C-130 requirements in terms of aircraft, not wings or squadrons. The recent C-130 Airlift Master Stationing Plan also expresses requirements in terms of the number of C-130 aircraft. Moreover, the study also states that the current C-130 inventory exceeds requirements, which we believe further lessens the impact of eliminating squadrons. The manner in which the Air Force plans to use reserve component units in wartime also minimizes the impact of reducing the number of flying squadrons. According to planning officials from the Air Combat Command and the Air Mobility Command, because active Air Force units are available immediately, they are typically tasked as lead units to provide the command and control in theater for wartime deployments. Reserve component flying squadrons generally follow active Air Force units and are placed under their command structure. These officials stated that planners partly assign existing reserve component flying squadrons in war plans by matching the capacity at likely deployment locations with the squadrons available in the reserve component inventory. They said that as long as the total number of aircraft available to perform missions remained the same, they could change assignments based on larger-sized squadrons. Further, an Air Force official stated that while the Air Force prefers to assign aircraft by squadrons for planning purposes, flying squadrons’ aircraft can be split, provided a command structure is in place. Unit officials stated that during Operation Desert Shield, reserve component aircraft and personnel were used in this manner. Moreover, in current deployment plans we viewed, one KC-135 flying squadron was split between two locations. Although squadrons are assigned to wings in peacetime, war plans described to us did not call for these wings to deploy or operate together. For example, civil engineer, medical, and security police squadrons may operate separately from the flying squadron. Wing officials stated that the Air Force has moved away from activating entire reserve component units; instead, war-fighting commanders choose packages of equipment and personnel that will meet their requirements for the mission at hand. At several wings we visited, officials stated that they had not deployed as a wing and were unaware of any plan to deploy as a wing. Further, many wing staff, including the wing commander, are not tasked in war plans and do not have a specific supporting mission. Redistributing the reserve’s component C-130 and KC-135 existing aircraft into fewer, larger squadrons and wings would reduce operating costs. For example, redistributing 16 C-130 aircraft from two 8-aircraft wings to one 16-aircraft wing would save about $11 million dollars annually, primarily from personnel savings. This reorganization could eliminate about 155 full-time positions and 245 part-time positions. The decrease in full-time positions is especially significant, since the savings associated with these positions represents about $8 million, or 75 percent, of the total savings. Fewer people would be needed in areas such as wing headquarters, logistics, operations, and support group staffs as well as maintenance, support, and military police squadrons. Appendix II describes the organization of a typical wing and how redistributing aircraft would affect the wing. In many cases eliminating the aircraft from a wing could also generate savings additional to operating savings. For example, civil engineering and medical squadrons, which help to support the wing and base in peacetime, are not directly related to the aircraft. If the wing is inactivated, these units’ worldwide requirements would have to be reexamined to determine whether they were still needed in the force structure. When the Reserve inactivated a C-130 wing in 1997, all eight of the nonflying squadrons not directly related to the aircraft were eliminated from the force structure, which involved about 140 full-time and about 625 part-time drill positions. Using average Air Force Reserve full- and part-time pay rates, these eliminations represent about $12 million in annual salaries. We developed five options for redistributing the existing reserve component C-130 and KC-135 aircraft into larger-sized squadrons that show a gradual increase in savings in operating costs—from $51 million to $209 million annually. Our options are not the only ones possible, but they do illustrate the significance of the savings that can be achieved through a redistribution of the aircraft. The options base like model aircraft together and involve the same number of aircraft as are now planned for the reserve component. In developing our options, we considered the two factors that reserve component officials cited as most important to successful reorganization: adequate recruiting potential and facility capacity. We also evaluated how three other issues could affect our options: one-time costs of redistributing the aircraft, the significance of the geographical location of the aircraft, and the effect that eliminating squadrons would have on states’ abilities to respond to domestic crises. We developed five options that redistributed aircraft from existing C-130 and KC-135 flying squadrons to other squadrons. The first option required the least reorganizing, increasing the number of squadrons with fewer than 10 aircraft to that level. This reorganization would be achieved by redistributing aircraft from three C-130 squadrons and one KC-135 squadron to other squadrons. Our fifth option increased the squadron size to 16 aircraft for the C-130 and 12 for the KC-135 by redistributing aircraft from 13 C-130 squadrons and 5 KC-135 squadrons to other squadrons. A detailed discussion of each option is in appendix I. Our analysis of data provided by Guard and Reserve recruiting officials demonstrates that a sufficient number of personnel could likely be recruited to meet increased requirements of larger squadrons in most locations. Air Reserve headquarters recruiters estimated that they could recruit enough personnel to support 16 C-130 aircraft at 8 of their current 10 locations. Guard headquarters recruiters estimated it could recruit an adequate number of personnel to support 16 aircraft at 9 of 23 C-130 locations. For KC-135 aircraft locations, Air Reserve officials estimated it could recruit enough personnel to support a 12-aircraft squadron at five of its six locations, with two locations capable of adding an entire 10-aircraft squadron.