>>KC-10’s are in critical need of replacement. i was hoping they would mention that.<<
DC-10 is very much an older airframe. I have great respect for the folk who maintain and fly these and the KC-135 (B707) aircraft (those are the only ones that I know of in the larger milcraft range that are from commercial jets).
I do hope they replace them and get this warrior into something a bit more modern.
While they are related, very closely, they are not the same airframe. The KC is skinnier and IIRC, shorter. The AWACS (E-3), the JSTARS (E-8) and the Hermes/TACAMO (E-6) do use the 707 airframe. Some countries, Israel for example, have tankers based on the 707 airframe, often conversions from old airliners. But the USAF KC-135, all the EC-135s and RC-135s (and at one time a few plain C-135s) are a distinct aircraft from the 707. The 707 first flew a few weeks before the contract for design of the -135 was let.