KC-46 on Boeing factory floor

WASHINGTON: Air Mobility Command (AMC) is reviewing how many off-the-shelf tankers it will need to buy to “bridge” capabilities provided by the KC-46 fleet once its fully operational and the development of a follow-on tanker, says commander Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost. The Air Force hopes to have figured out a concept for that next-generation aerial refueling aircraft some time in 2022, she said.

The KC-46 is expected to be fully operational — that is, able to take on the gamut of missions from medical airlift through aerial refueling — in fiscal year 2024, Van Ovost told the Defense Writers Group today.

The initial projection for full operational capability was 2017, but a series of problems with the aircraft — including serious design flaws in its boom camera necessary for refueling — have caused continued delays. In addition to being years behind schedule, the KC-46 now has cost Boeing more in cost overruns than the value of its initial Air Force development contract, colleague Valeri Insinna reported.

Van Ovost said that just a few days ago the Air Force and Boeing had resolved two of six outstanding “Category 1 deficiencies,” the ranking for the most dire problems that can cause loss of the life or the aircraft: issues with the auxiliary power unit and quality issues with welding on the unit. Still, four Category 1 problems remain unsolved with no fix date in site.

Even as late and troubled as the program is, the Air Force still plans to buy 179 KC-46s, with former service acquisition czar Will Roper and other leaders convinced they have a plan that will result in a superior tanker. The final block buy is slated for 2027 and delivery for 2029, she said. Once the KC-46s are actually coming into the fleet, she said, the Air Force can finally retire the KC-135s — which currently have an average age of about 55 years. And at that point, Van Ovost explained, AMC will need the interim aircraft, designated the KC-Y, to replace the KC-135 and provide new capabilities that fill the gap between what the KC-46 can do and what a brand new tanker optimized for multi-domain operations will need to do.

The KC-Y is “what we call the bridge tanker,” she elaborated. There will “be a full and open competition for a non-developmental tanker — in other words a commercial capability that’s out there, or can be developed. Right now I know of two types that are out there, Airbus and Boeing.”

Those interim airplanes will serve “until we can determine the final requirements of what we call Advanced Air Refueling, which you would call KC-Z,” she added. A new capability is needed because the Joint Warfighting Concept is changing how AMC needs to operate in order to meet the challenges of peer competitors.

The Joint Warfighting Concept, which will define future All Domain Operations, is now slated to be finalized for JCS Chairman Gen. Mark Milley’s signature sometime in the late spring. 

Van Ovost demurred on giving a specific timeline on what exactly would happen when. The idea, she said, is for a rolling re-configuration of the fleet. AMC currently is experimenting with the KC-135 — including under the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) program — to pinpoint “targeted investment” aimed at making it “a little more survivable” and able to provide “battlespace awareness.” (Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper back in November said that a tanker would likely be the first to be fitted with new ABMS-developed data links that would allow it to serve as an airborne communications relay.)

As for phasing out the KC-135, she explained that will be based on the timing of KC-46 aircraft entering the fleet and becoming fully capable. AMC now has 10 KC-46 aircraft with “limited op capability” and “five more airplanes in the queue over the next couple of months,” she said.

screenshot of Air Force video

Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost

Meanwhile, AMC is already working to define the next-generation tanker that will come online after the KC-46.

The questions involved in development of a future capability are myriad. They include, Van Ovost said, “Is it going to be autonomous? Is it going to be pilot on the loop, pilot in the loop capability? Is it going to be small? Is it going to be large? What kind of self-protect is it going to have? What kind of electromagnetic spectrum capabilities it is it going to have to both protect itself and enhance the lethality of the Joint Force?”

All of that is going to take time, but Van Ovost said that AMC is looking at developing an AoA sometime in 2022.

Van Ovost declined to talk about money, however, whether the costs of operating the KC-135s until the KC-46 is fully operational, the costs of the ‘bridge tanker,’ or the costs of the future development.