{"id":43118,"date":"2018-10-26T17:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/10\/26\/what-happens-once-the-kc-46-is-delivered\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:55:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:55:43","slug":"what-happens-once-the-kc-46-is-delivered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/10\/26\/what-happens-once-the-kc-46-is-delivered\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens once the KC-46 is delivered?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GRAPEVINE, Texas \u2014 Although there is no precise delivery date for the troubled Boeing KC-46 Pegasus aircraft, the U.S. Air Force is already making plans for what it will do with the next-generation tanker once it is delivered to McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the calendar day arrives that we accept that aircraft, we will then begin the process that we\u2019ve been planning for for a while. It means we just begin to execute the [initial operational test and evaluation] at that point,\u201d Gen. Maryanne Miller, the commander of Air Mobility Command, said in a roundtable with reporters at the 2018 Airlift\/Tanker Symposium<\/a> outside Dallas, Texas, on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIts a familiarization that we will do, and its a whole series of a few months, actually months of going through that, and right now our crews are going through, we\u2019re training the first cadre,\u201d Miller said, noting that the simulators at McConnell would be certified next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we are ready. We\u2019re just waiting for the operational test people, and a way ahead on the solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked how long it will take before KC-46s can conduct operational missions, Miller said initial operating capability would likely occur a year after delivery \u2014 and full operational capability two years after delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all of this is dependent on getting the long-delayed tanker to the hands of airmen. The company was initially slated to start delivery of the tankers by August 2017. That was pushed to October 2018, a deadline the Air Force said last week will not be met.<\/p>\n\n\n\t