{"id":38149,"date":"2019-01-25T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T10:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/01\/25\/air-force-secretary-confirms-key-kc-46-milestone-wont-occur-until-2020\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:00:42","slug":"air-force-secretary-confirms-key-kc-46-milestone-wont-occur-until-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/01\/25\/air-force-secretary-confirms-key-kc-46-milestone-wont-occur-until-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force secretary confirms key KC-46 milestone won\u2019t occur until 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EVERETT, Wash. \u2014 After about two years of delays, the Air Force on Friday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/newsletters\/tv-next-episode\/2019\/01\/20\/the-air-force-accepts-the-first-kc-46but-theres-a-catch\/\" target=\"_blank\">will finally take hold of its first two<\/a> KC-46 tankers, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/05\/04\/boeing-pushes-back-on-its-bad-reputation-on-kc-46-tanker-program\/\" target=\"_blank\">many more at Boeing\u2019s production facility <\/a>ready to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About three tankers are set to be delivered to the Air Force every month this year, making it likely that the service could have a force of at least 36 KC-46 Pegasus tankers by the end of the year, Air Force and Boeing officials told reporters after a Jan. 24 ceremony marking the first KC-46 delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But a major milestone called required assets available or RAA \u2014 which calls for the delivery of 18 certified KC-46s and nine wing refueling pods \u2014 will not occur until the summer of 2020, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/breaking-news\/2019\/01\/10\/boeing-delivers-first-kc-46-but-fixes-to-technical-problems-still-years-away\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/KC-46-row-1-1.jpg-1.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Boeing delivers first KC-46, but fixes to technical problems still years away<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Boeing could miss out on $1.5 billion if the maximum withholding is applied to all 52 tankers on contract.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe signed the acceptance on two of them, and we expect a rate of about three a month,\u201d Wilson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson\u2019s comments follow a Jan. 23 report by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-01-23\/boeing-s-44-billion-tanker-may-miss-a-milestone-by-three-years\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg News<\/a>, which first reported that RAA had slipped to 2020 based on predictions by the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Contract Management Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mike Gibbons, Boeing\u2019s KC-46 program manager, was confident Boeing would quickly deliver the first 18 tankers to the Air Force due to the \u201cnice, steady flow of production\u201d that had been established over the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exactly when the wing aerial refueling pods, or WARPs, will be available to deliver is a fuzzier proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sean Martin, Boeing\u2019s chief aerial refueling operator, said that Boeing continues to work \u201cvery, very hard\u201d with WARP manufacturer Cobham to get the pods ready to be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration \u2014 a first for an Air Force tanker, which normally are only qualified within the military and not to civil standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re working through to be done by the end of 2019. The Air Force will decide when they are ready to accept the first pods,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gibbons reiterated that Boeing was working to wrap up FAA certification for the refueling pods this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRAA is something we\u2019re still in discussion with the Air Force about,\u201d he said. \u201cUntil we finish that discussion, I can\u2019t give you a date.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the delivery ceremony, Boeing Defense CEO Leanne Caret made a surprise announcement that the company would deliver not one, but two tankers to the Air Force tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Pegasus is defined by three words: capability, efficiency and affordability,&#8221; said Caret. \u201cIt is equipped with the most advanced technology to fulfill the Air Force\u2019s most critical needs to fuel cargo, to travel passengers and carry patients.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing\u2019s delivery of the KC-46 to the Air Force marks a major milestone for a program that is about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/10\/17\/the-first-kc-46-delivery-is-not-happening-this-october\/\" target=\"_blank\">two years behind schedule<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/industry\/2018\/10\/24\/boeing-adds-another-179m-in-cost-overruns-to-kc-46-as-delivery-draws-near\/\" target=\"_blank\">$3 billion over budget<\/a>. And although officials sounded an optimistic note about the future of the program during the delivery ceremony, the first tankers will be accepted by the Air Force despite a number of flaws with the aircraft\u2019s boom and the remote vision system that allows the boom operator to safely guide fuel from one aircraft to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the company\u2019s fixed-price contract with the Air Force, Boeing is required to pay for cost overruns, further incentivizing Boeing to get the program on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boeing has 52 KC-46 aircraft currently under contract, with about a dozen jets fully complete and several more closely following, Gibbons said. The first four KC-46s are headed to McConnell AFB, while the next four will fly to Altus AFB, Okla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThose four at McConnell are needed for them to start their operator training and to get familiarized with the jet. We\u2019ll deliver to Altus Air Force Base in February,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It will take until 2020 for Boeing to deliver the aerial refueling pods as part of an agreement with the Air Force<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,160,12,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-38149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-industry","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2CC7LVJSAZBGLFDLV34EGFEAWU","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2019\/01\/25\/air-force-secretary-confirms-key-kc-46-milestone-wont-occur-until-2020\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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