KC-46 refueling vision system fix delayed to 2027
The new timeline is a setback for the beleaguered tanker, whose deliveries have been halted since February.
The new timeline is a setback for the beleaguered tanker, whose deliveries have been halted since February.
The new contract is for the ninth lot of an overall order for 128 KC-46As, 68 of which have been delivered to the Air Force, the company said.
RVS 2.0 provides a “quantum leap” in camera technology, said Lt. Col. Joshua Renfro of the Air Force’s KC-46 cross functional team. “We're very confident in the product. We like where it's going, and we really like what this is going to deliver to us down the road."
The KC-46’s new Remote Vision System 2.0 now won’t be available until October 2025.
The Air Force could not provide a cost estimate detailing what the service will pay in order to replace the KC-46's panoramic sensors.
Whether the RVS 2.0 would include changes to the panoramic camera system was a major point of contention between the Air Force and the defense contractor.
“Without taking these steps prior to closing the preliminary design review, the program may accept a remote vision system design that contains immature technologies and greater risk of cost and schedule growth,” the Government Accountability Office states in its report.
Total cost overruns for the program sit at about $5.4 billion in pre-tax charges, and all must be paid by Boeing.
The Air Force worries that if it approves Remote Vision System 2.0 before concerns about the tanker's panoramic display system are resolved, it could be locked into paying for a fix.
TRANSCOM can now task KC-46 tankers to use their air refueling boom to fill up C-17 Globemaster III, B-52H Stratofortress and other KC-46 aircraft during day-to-day operations.
"We still have several more years of procurement of the KC-46. So, the good thing is we have time to have these conversations, and look at the technologies out there," Lt. Gen. David Nahom told appropriators today.
"There's a lot of retrofit that will have to take place," Gen. Stephen Lyons said about the replacement of the tanker's faulty boom camera.
"One of those next strategic questions for the Air Force is going to be: can you defend a tanker against an onslaught of fighters, who know that every tanker you kill is like killing a lot of fighters or bombers or drones that it supports?" says Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper.
The Air Force provided few details about the latest problem bedeviling the airborne tanker in its terse statement last night, saying only that it had "upgraded an existing deficiency of its KC-46 Pegasus fuel system to Category I."