New KC-46 vision system begins test flights, as Boeing eyes more Gulf sales

DUBAI AIRSHOW — Boeing has flown a new vision system on the company’s troubled KC-46 Pegasus air refueler for the first time, the firm’s defense chief revealed today, a key step toward resolving an issue that has plagued the platform for years.

Speaking during a roundtable with reporters ahead of the Dubai Airshow here, Steve Parker also disputed that cost increases influenced the US Air Force’s decision to ditch Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail, emphasizing that questions over capability alone drove a rupture whose ripple effects have seemingly prompted NATO to similarly abandon aspirations for the radar plane. 

According to Parker, the flight testing for the KC-46 took place “yesterday” in the Seattle area, a manufacturing hub for the aerospace giant where the KC-46 is produced. Flight testing is critical for demonstrating a system’s maturity in operational environments, but like any development work carries risk of unwelcome discoveries. 

“It’s very rainy days, as sometimes it is in Seattle, but that’s the first flight with the new remote visual system. So that’s a huge milestone for the program,” Parker said. 

Although officials reportedly hoped to field it in 2023, the upgrade for the KC-46’s vision system, dubbed RVS 2.0, has been delayed several times and is now expected in 2027. In the meantime Boeing has been delivering Pegasus refuelers with what the Air Force dubs RVS 1.5 that carries some improvements over the 1.0 version. 

The current RVS needs to be replaced with its 2.0 successor, officials say, because of deficiencies that impede its performance. Unlike legacy tankers where boom operators peer out a window to guide telescopic refueling rods to receivers, operators in the Pegasus use cameras and remote controls. But the system struggles with dynamic lighting, where nighttime refuelings can be difficult to see or daytime runs can be washed out by sunlight.

RVS also has issues with depth perception, adding risk a boom operator could strike an aircraft during a refueling run. To address these problems, which are both rated by the Air Force as Category 1 deficiencies, RVS 2.0 will upgrade the aircraft’s two long-wave infrared and two visible spectrum cameras and add a set of visible spectrum cameras for a total of six separate lenses.

Visual issues aren’t the only woes facing the aircraft, which has several other open Category 1 deficiencies that both the US Air Force and Boeing are working to resolve. However, despite issues with the tanker, the Air Force announced earlier this year that it would forego a near-term competition to procure another tanker design and simply buy more KC-46s from Boeing.

Bernd Peters, Boeing defense’s vice president of business development and strategy, said during the roundtable that the KC-46 is a top product the company is pitching in the Middle East along with others like the T-7 Red Hawk training jet and autonomous systems. Referencing an announcement earlier this year that Qatar is seeking to buy the Pegasus, Peters said more customers could be forthcoming.

“[A]t the appropriate time, we’ll be able to discuss that. But for now, we still feel pretty bullish on KC-46 in the region,” he said.

E-7 Troubles

But things appear more sour for the firm’s Wedgetail, particularly following a surprise announcement last week that NATO countries will no longer pursue the aircraft as a replacement for the alliance’s aging E-3 Sentry. A statement from the Dutch defense ministry cited the loss of “strategic and financial foundations,” in part due to the Pentagon’s decision earlier this year to cancel its own plans for the aircraft. 

Announcing the decision to end the program — a highly anticipated acquisition for the Air Force that previously was set to replace the service’s own geriatric E-3 fleet to track airborne targets and manage forces in battle — a senior military official in June cited delays, survivability concerns and a cost increase of $588 million to $724 million per aircraft. Instead, officials said they would move to rapidly shift the aircraft’s tracking missions to satellites and buy more Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeyes as a stopgap. 

“I don’t think it had anything to do with price,” Parker said in response to questions about how the E-7 program has unraveled somewhat within the last year, saying instead that there’s “consternation within the US government about whether this capability is done from space” or from the air. Additionally, Parker said NATO has not formally made a decision to end the plane’s procurement despite that statement from the Dutch defense ministry.

“We’ll respect it, whatever decision they make,” Parker said of NATO’s E-7 plans. 

Boeing’s hope may reside with the US Congress, where lawmakers have balked at the Pentagon’s cancellation of the program, adding $200 million to the effort as part of a deal to reopen the federal government. The Air Force previously put Boeing on contract for two rapid prototype planes for delivery in FY28, though Parker demurred on whether funding from Congress could get those aircraft across the finish line to the Air Force.

“I think it’s a little bit early to tell at the moment, we’ll see what gets funded and what comes through, and we’ll go from there,” he said.