WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Pressure’s high civilian stated Wednesday the service is eyeing a 5% reduce within the minimal variety of aerial refueling tankers it’s required to maintain in its fleet.
And Air Mobility Command introduced later that day that the KC-46A Pegasus tanker is now accredited to refuel about 97% of plane flown throughout U.S. Transportation Command missions.
Throughout an occasion on the Heritage Basis suppose tank, Air Pressure Secretary Frank Kendall stated the service plans to ask Congress for permission to chop its tanker fleet requirement from a minimal of 479 refueling plane to 455.
Congress set that 479 requirement when it handed the 2019 Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, which was primarily based on a TRANSCOM examine from 2018 that discovered that quantity to be the minimal fleet dimension required if conflict broke out. On the finish of 2021, the Air Pressure had about 490 tankers in its fleet.
Kendall stated a tanker capability of a minimum of 455 can be “satisfactory” to reply to a risk from China, which the army considers the USA’ present pacing problem, in addition to different missions. However because the Air Pressure carefully considers its priorities in a troublesome fiscal setting, the service “can’t do the whole lot on a regular basis,” he defined. And he warned the service’s skill to reply to a number of main crises directly could also be examined.
“Given the threats that we face, the concept we are able to do a serious conflict and a serious contingency concurrently is a stretch,” Kendall stated.
The Hudson Institute stated in a November 2021 examine that the Air Pressure’s refueling capability had turn out to be brittle and aged, and had little headroom to tackle new missions. The examine stated this endangers the nation’s skill to maintain fight in opposition to a serious adversary if conflict broke out.
Kendall additionally stated the Air Pressure is rising extra involved that tankers could confronted an elevated risk of being shot down in fight. Methods to design a extra combat-survivable tanker is without doubt one of the key questions the Air Pressure is asking because it begins to check what its future KC-Z tanker ought to appear like.
However, Kendall stated, that’s nonetheless an open query and the Air Pressure hasn’t gotten very far on discovering a solution.
He additionally reiterated that the Air Pressure has turn out to be “a lot much less assured” that it’ll maintain a contest for the KC-Y bridge tanker, which is able to pave the best way for the service’s next-generation KC-Z. If the service doesn’t maintain a KC-Y competitors, it will purchase extra KC-46 Pegasus plane from Boeing whereas retiring older KC-10 and KC-135 tankers.
Kendall praised the KC-46 as a serious “night-and-day” enchancment over the KC-46. He acknowledged this system has had issues, together with with its defective authentic distant imaginative and prescient system, and famous aircraft-maker Boeing has “misplaced an enormous sum of money on this system to date.”
However Kendall stated the Air Pressure and Boeing are working their approach by means of the KC-46′s issues, and the service is on a path to with the ability to deal with all of the plane that want aerial refueling.
Extra missions for the KC-46
Air Mobility Command introduced after Kendall’s occasion that its high chief, Gen. Mike Minihan, on Tuesday accredited the seventh interim functionality launch mission set for the Pegasus.
The KC-46 is now accredited to refuel the F-35B and F-35C fighter jets throughout TRANSCOM-tasked missions, AMC stated. The newest mission set additionally cleared the Pegasus to refuel the B-1B Lancer, C-135 variants, the E-8 Joint Surveillance Goal Assault Radar System, the EC-130H Compass Name, the KC-10 Extender and the P-8 Poseidon on TRANSCOM missions.
“Credible and dependable KC-46A tanker functionality is now obtainable to our joint and worldwide companions,” Minihan stated.
A yr in the past, the commander stated, the Pegasus was not but cleared to refuel plane throughout any TRANSCOM missions. That modified in July 2021, when the primary interim functionality launch clearing it to refuel plane with its centerline drogue system was launched.
One month later, the KC-46 had been OK’d to refuel the B-52 Stratofortress, C-17 Globemaster and different Pegasus plane with its refueling increase throughout TRANSCOM missions.
Extra plane had been incrementally added within the months that adopted. Earlier than Tuesday, the KC-46 may refuel 85% of the plane it wanted to on TRANSCOM missions.
The KC-46 performed its first operational refueling of a global allied plane in April, with the refueling of Spanish EF-18 Hornets throughout an train at Moron Air Base in Spain, AMC stated. The KC-46 was already approved to refuel F-18s from Canada and Spain, and it’s now accredited to refuel planes from Finland, Italy, Australia, Malaysia and Switzerland.
A KC-46 from the twenty second Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Pressure Base in Kansas additionally performed a 24.2-hour flight Could 5-6, which is the longest length flight in AMC historical past.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter at Protection News. He beforehand reported for Army.com, masking the Pentagon, particular operations and air warfare. Earlier than that, he coated U.S. Air Pressure management, personnel and operations for Air Pressure Instances.
