Tanker thing?
Our combat aircraft rely heavily on tankers. They can either carry quite a bit of fuel or enough fuel and a combat weapons load but not quite a bit of fuel and a combat weapons load.
Our tankers are old, too few in number and tasked too thinly. Some of the KC-135s are decades old. They have newer engines and are maintained but they are old, you can’t keep everything fixed that breaks all the time.
It’s also notable that there was a long political fight over KC-135 replacement, with options offered by both Boeing and Airbus which has much delayed ending the tanker problem. An Airbus, non-union, plan was picked at one time, then McCain and others got the issue re-opened for Boeing. I don’t recall what’s happened since and I lack the expertise to know which of the competing stories are truly best for the mission. I just see the politics and am disgusted to see the marginal at best status quo extended.