{"id":59175,"date":"2020-01-28T21:39:02","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T21:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/28\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:25:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:25:52","slug":"transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2020\/01\/28\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force must figure out how to survive ramifications of KC-46 delays, says service leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Delays in developing and fielding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2019\/09\/11\/air-force-restricts-kc-46-from-carrying-cargo-and-personnel\/\" target=\"_blank\">the U.S. Air Force\u2019s new KC-46 tanker<\/a> are aggravating the existing aerial-refueling shortfall, and the situation could get even worse if the service sticks to its plan to retire legacy tankers, the head of U.S. Transportation Command said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got to figure out a way to mitigate<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/12\/20\/the-kc-46-is-back-to-carrying-cargo-and-passengers\/\" target=\"_blank\"> the delayed fielding of the KC-46<\/a>,\u201d Army Gen. Stephen Lyons said Jan. 28 at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. \u201cBecause that delay is built in, and the Air Force had already planned on the retirement of some number of KC-135s and KC-10s, if we\u2019re not careful we\u2019re going to see a dip \u2026 in taskable tails for the joint force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even though the Air Force is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/01\/25\/the-air-force-gets-its-first-new-kc-46s-an-event-decades-in-the-making\/\" target=\"_blank\">accepting deliveries of the KC-46<\/a>, its leaders have made clear that the service will not utilize its newest tanker in combat until <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2019\/01\/10\/boeing-delivers-first-kc-46-but-fixes-to-technical-problems-still-years-away\/\" target=\"_blank\">the remote vision system<\/a> \u2014 a series of cameras used to steer the boom into another aircraft\u2019s refueling receptacle \u2014 is brought up to the service\u2019s specifications. Those hardware and software changes are still under negotiation between the Air Force and KC-46 manufacturer Boeing, and could take two to three years to solve,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2019\/09\/18\/amc-commander-boeing-has-not-made-progress-on-kc-46\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Air Force officials have said. <\/a><\/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\/air\/2019\/12\/13\/the-air-force-needs-more-tankers-could-the-defense-industry-have-the-answer\/\" 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=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5935403.jpg.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\">The US Air Force needs more tankers. Does the defense industry have the answer?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Air Force is planning an industry day to find out more about whether defense companies can take over certain aerial refueling missions.<\/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\">The Air Force said its assessments show the service needs 14 more tanker squadrons by 2030 to meet the threats posed by China and Russia. But in the meantime, the aerial-refueling fleet continues to be the most stressed asset in U.S. Transportation Command\u2019s portfolio, Lyons said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some within the Defense Department have advocated for keeping legacy tankers around longer to help bridge the gap. Early last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2019\/03\/05\/transcom-working-to-defer-kc-135-retirement-as-delays-with-kc-46-continue\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lyons told Congress<\/a> that the Air Force was considering keeping as many as 28 KC-135s. In December, Air Mobility Command deputy commander Lt. Gen. Jon Thomas said the Air Force was debating keeping 14 KC-135s as part of the fiscal 2021 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the Air Force is also under pressure to cut spending on legacy platforms to cover the cost of future priorities like joint all-domain command and control. Furthermore, the smaller KC-10 fleet is rumored to be one of the platforms under consideration for a speedier-than-planned retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One way the Air Force is considering mitigating the KC-46 delays is to purchase aerial-refueling services from defense contractors. Air Mobility Command held an industry day with interested vendors in December to discuss potential business models for an agreement and to get a better sense of what is available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lyon said it was \u201cworth a look\u201d at whether the U.S. military could lease aerial-refueling aircraft to take pressure off the military\u2019s tanker fleet and help restore readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are looking at that, actually, but I haven\u2019t seen the business case on that yet,\u201d he said, adding that there would be limits on how the military would use contractor-owned tankers. \u201cYou certainly wouldn\u2019t want to employ that capability in a contested environment or a combat environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, is open to using commercial tanker services to supplement the Air Force&#8217;s aerial refueling fleet, but that might not do the trick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":44340,"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":{"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,44,8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-59175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-budget","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"NAJJR7DMWFELVEUNOB3SD5BKOM","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2020\/01\/28\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US Air Force must figure out how to survive ramifications of KC-46 delays, says service leader - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, is open to using commercial tanker services to supplement the Air Force&#039;s aerial refueling fleet, but that might not do the trick.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Air Force must figure out how to survive ramifications of KC-46 delays, says service leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, is open to using commercial tanker services to supplement the Air Force&#039;s aerial refueling fleet, but that might not do the trick.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2020\/01\/28\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-28T21:39:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T00:25:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Valerie Insinna\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"US Air Force must figure out how to survive ramifications of KC-46 delays, says service leader\",\n\t            \"datePublished\": \"2020-01-28T21:39:02+00:00\",\n\t            \"dateModified\": \"2026-08-08T00:25:52+00:00\",\n\t            \"mainEntityOfPage\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"wordCount\": 508,\n\t            \"commentCount\": 0,\n\t            \"publisher\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#organization\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"image\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/#primaryimage\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"thumbnailUrl\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/5570036.jpg.jpg\",\n\t            \"articleSection\": [\n\t                \"Air Warfare\",\n\t                \"Budget\",\n\t                \"Congress\",\n\t                \"Daily News Roundup\",\n\t                \"Newsletters\"\n\t            ],\n\t            \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t            \"potentialAction\": [\n\t                {\n\t                    \"@type\": \"CommentAction\",\n\t                    \"name\": \"Comment\",\n\t                    \"target\": [\n\t                        \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/#respond\"\n\t                    ]\n\t                }\n\t            ]\n\t        },\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/\",\n\t            \"url\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/air\\\/2020\\\/01\\\/28\\\/transcom-head-the-military-needs-to-figure-out-how-to-mitigate-kc-46-delays\\\/\",\n\t            \"name\": \"US Air Force must figure out how to survive ramifications of KC-46 delays, says service leader - 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