The surprise withdrawal of the aerospace giant could give Boeing a leg up as the Air Force moves toward a contract award for a new fleet of refuelers, analysts told Breaking Defense.
Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter indicated he was leaning toward buying 75 more KC-46A tankers as a bridge to an accelerated next-gen program.
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
"I was surprised the anticipated initial operational capability for NGAS is 2040. It is likely that this RFI and the subsequent Analysis of Alternatives will find that there are viable options for the Air Force to accelerate the fielding of KC-Z," the Hudson Institute's Tim Walton said in an email to Breaking Defense.
“If the [KC-Y] competition doesn't go forward, I'm not convinced the next competition would be for a [clean-sheet KC-Z]," said Larry Gallogly, Lockheed’s LMXT campaign director.
"This will easily be Buy American Act [compliant]. It's not even going to be close," L3Harris CEO Chris Kubasik said of the effort with Brazil's Embraer.
L3Harris believes that the KC-390 could be a key piece of the Air Force's next-generation KC-Z family of tankers due to its smaller size and ability to operate in austere environments.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Currently, the Air Force envisions its next-generation KC-Z tanker as a family of systems, which could include a tanker aircraft as well as “other technologies, whether it's survivability, or connectivity, or maybe efficiencies that we want to pull into that,” said program officer Paul Waugh.
A new report by the Hudson Institute projects the Pentagon is liable to be outdone by China if it fails to more heavily invested in the Air Force's aerial refueling capabilities.