USAF announces initial basing plans for KC-46A tanker
The US Air Force (USAF) has selected the first two bases to house the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus aerial refuelling aircraft when the type enters service from 2017, the service announced on 23 April, reports Jane's.
Altus Air Force Base (AFB) in Oklahoma, has been selected as the KC-46A's formal training unit, with McConnell AFB in Kansas serving as the first active duty-led main operating base with 36 aircraft. McConnell AFB will also serve as the site for the new KC-46A Regional Maintenance Training Center.
United States Air Force (USAF) officials noted that they analysed operational considerations, installation attributes, and economic and environmental factors for each location before making a final basing decision. "The air force chose these bases using operational analysis, the results of site surveys, and military judgment factors," Timothy Bridges, USAF Deputy Assistant Secretary for Installations is quoted as saying in a service statement.
A final basing decision for the first Air National Guard (ANG) main operating base is expected this summer, with the first aircraft scheduled to arrive with the Guard in Fiscal Year 2018.
The USAF's basing announcement follows on from an earlier disclosure that the 418th Flight Test Squadron (FTS), Detachment 1, for the KC-46A stood up at King County International Airport (colloquially known as Boeing Field) near Seattle in mid-2013. The Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, Defense Contract Management Agency, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will also be located at Boeing Field. Test work will also take place at Edwards AFB in California, and from the test integrated product team in the programme office at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.
Boeing is currently under contract to build four test KC-46A aircraft under the USD3.9 billion engineering, manufacture, and development phase of the USAF's KC-X programme. Manufacture of these airframes is now underway at the company's 767 airliner line at Everett, near Seattle in Washington. The first 'green' airframe is scheduled to fly the short distance to Boeing Field in the coming months, where it will be fitted with its aerial refuelling equipment and other military systems. The first flight of a fully provisioned KC-46A tanker slated to take place in the third quarter of 2015.
Under the KC-X programme, the USAF plans to replace approximately half of its 400 Boeing KC-135R Stratotankers with 179 KC-46A aircraft by 2028. Follow-on KC-Y and KC-Z requirements will be put out to tender to replace the remaining KC-135s and the 59 McDonnell Douglas KC-10 Extender platforms.
