A brief review of the vacuum metallurgical processes used for the production of high performance aircraft bearing steels is presented. Primary vacuum induction melting of M50 bearing steel in the Therm-I-Vac furnace and subsequent vacuum arc remelting has brought about a two- to threefold improvement in rolling contact fatigue life which appears to be related to precise composition control and very low gas and inclusion contents. Extensive vacuum-carbon deoxidation by an active boil and resultant more stable vacuum arc remelting conditions have been found to be important factors in producing a superior quality consumable ingot with a uniform structure free of macro-segregations. Property improvements in regard to product consistency, structural uniformity, and microcleanliness as well as the evaluation of bearing materials by rolling contact fatigue testing are discussed. It is believed that the significantly better rolling contact fatigue lives achieved by an optimized TIV+VAR practice are basically due to marked reductions of (1) interstitial gas content (H, O, N), (2) nonmetallic (S) and metallic impurities, (3) total inclusion content.