BUT?
The 179 KC-46’s on order will STILL require the Air Force to keep some of the vintage KC-135’s in service….
The Air Forcee is already looking for the replacement for the new KC-46 Pegasus….
Make’s sense?….Huh?
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force are now set to move on from a two-year impasse over the KC-46 tanker aircraft’s unresolved deficiencies. For Boeing, this means recouping development losses by finally delivering and eventually sustaining 179 aircraft. The Air Force, meanwhile, is already looking beyond the KC-46 for its future aerial refueling requirements.
After a two-year delay, the first two KC-46s were set to depart on Jan. 25 from Boeing’s factory in Everett to McConnell AFB, Kansas. The delivery closes a chapter in the eight-year saga of the KC-46 development program, but the story continues.
The Air Force finally agreed to accept KC-46 deliveries from Boeing despite deficiencies in the tanker aircraft’s critical remote-vision system and lingering concerns about the refueling boom’s ability to sense axial forces. The Air Force is withholding $28 million from the final payment to Boeing on each KC-46 delivery until the problems are resolved.
But the conditional delivery agreement finally allows the Air Force to take delivery of its first refueling-boom-equipped tanker since the last KC-10 was delivered in 1988.
“Today highlights a first step in recapitalizing an aging tanker fleet,” says Gen. Maryanne Miller, commander of Air Mobility Command…..
Note….
The delivery of these Boeing aircraft is years late and over budget…
image…Kansas.Com