This effort in turning out the KC-46 Pegasus is the running with the F-35 as the worst Defense contract effort in decades….
While several other countries have their tankers based on the Boeing 767 airframe in service ?
Boeing and the US Air Force cannot get their act together….
If you ask Boeing, it is on the cusp of delivering a game-changing tanker capability to the U.S. Air Force. But if you ask the Air Force, Boeing has to resolve significant design flaws and is far from completing the required flight testing.
More than seven years after contract award, the aerospace giant and its U.S. government customer are at loggerheads over the new KC-46 refueling tanker’s delivery timing and what work remains for Boeing to do.
The daylight between Boeing and the Air Force on the KC-46 refueling tanker was on full display during interviews with officials from both in the past few weeks. During a media visit to Boeing’s Everett, Washington, facility May 3 and an interview with Air Force KC-46 program manager Brig. Gen. Donna Shipton May 9 at the Pentagon, officials presented contradictory information on the long-delayed aircraft.
This is not the first time the two parties have clashed on the KC-46. Until last December, Boeing was promising to deliver the first of 18 required tankers by the end of 2017, although the Air Force was projecting it would not receive the aircraft before mid-2018.
Today, Boeing Defense CEO Leanne Caret pledges delivery of all 18 KC-46s will occur by year-end. But the Air Force now expects delivery in May 2019, 21 months later than originally planned, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office….
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