{"id":65464,"date":"2023-09-08T20:39:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T20:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/09\/08\/us-air-force-warns-budget-delays-could-jeopardize-ngas-tanker-fielding\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:47:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:47:56","slug":"us-air-force-warns-budget-delays-could-jeopardize-ngas-tanker-fielding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2023\/09\/08\/us-air-force-warns-budget-delays-could-jeopardize-ngas-tanker-fielding\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force warns budget delays could jeopardize NGAS tanker fielding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s plan to field a next-generation refueling tanker<\/a> by the mid-2030s could be in jeopardy if the service has to operate under lengthy continuing resolutions<\/a>, a top service official said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Hunter, the assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview with Defense News at the Pentagon that a lengthy continuing resolution<\/a> in fiscal 2024, and possibly the following year, could hinder how quickly the service begins work on the next-generation aerial refueling system, or NGAS<\/a>, program, thus leading to problems down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe longer you take to get started, obviously, that has back-end consequences,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if those consequences could affect the mid-2030s goal, Hunter replied: \u201cCorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force still plans to launch a formal analysis of alternatives for NGAS in early fiscal 2024, Hunter said, adding that \u201chopefully we\u2019ll get an FY24 budget sometime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That analysis is expected to produce recommendations on what a future NGAS tanker would need to meet the Air Force\u2019s goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Congress cannot pass a formal budget on time and the Air Force has to operate under a continuing resolution, Hunter said, the service will be able to continue its preparatory work on the analysis now underway. The NGAS analysis doesn\u2019t require a lot of money, he explained, which makes it easier to reallocate funds to keep it going under a continuing resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once NGAS moves beyond the analysis and \u201cto the stage of really wanting to work directly with industry \u2014 establish vendor pools, those kinds of things that we\u2019ve talked about for NGAS \u2014 we\u2019re going to need a real budget to do that,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And other, larger new programs \u2014 meant to address \u201coperational imperatives\u201d Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall believes are necessary to transform and counter a potential threat from China \u2014 will also require more money in an FY24 budget to get started, Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe longer we wait on \u201924, the further we will fall behind on addressing our operational imperatives,\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force earlier this year shifted course on the two tanker recapitalization stages that will follow the ongoing KC-46 acquisition. Originally the service envisioned following up with KC-Y, a so-called bridge tanker acquisition of roughly 150 refueling planes, and then a next-generation KC-Z in the 2040s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But China\u2019s rapidly developing air capabilities prompted the service to move up the next-gen tanker it now refers to as NGAS to the mid-2030s, and scale back its interim KC-135 recapitalization to roughly 75.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter also said the Air Force hopes its revamped strategy for its next refueling tanker, in between the current KC-46 purchase and NGAS, will allow it to proceed with a less extensive engineering and manufacturing development phase than the previous KC-Y approach would have required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter said the service still plans to finish the KC-135 recapitalization\u2019s joint capabilities integration and development system, or JCIDS, process and release a request for information later this month. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are expected to compete for the next tanker, with the former likely to offer a slightly modified KC-46, and the latter pitching its LMXT tanker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
An artist\u2019s rendering shows the potential LMXT tanker refueling a Next Generation Air Dominance fighter. (Courtesy of Lockheed Martin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hunter said this RFI will ask industry to detail what it could provide that is \u201cmore aligned with the KC-X [or KC-46] requirement than with the KC-Y requirement that we had originally talked to them about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to make sure that we went back to industry to give them an opportunity to offer information relevant to that [new] requirement, which is most of the way through the JCIDS process,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cIt\u2019s gotten very firm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force also wants to better understand how industry sees the timing of how quickly they could deliver a follow-on tanker to replace KC-135s, Hunter said. The length of time it might take for industry to deliver a KC-Y tanker was one factor that prompted the Air Force to rethink its strategy to accelerate NGAS and scale back its interim tanker purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Hunter announced the new tanker strategy in March, he predicted Boeing would be able to deliver modified KC-46s in 2032, and Lockheed\u2019s LMXT tanker, if chosen, would likely come in 2034.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lockheed Martin and Airbus, partners on LMXT, disagreed that delivery of its tanker would take that long. Hunter later said industry asked the Air Force to explain in greater detail its concerns about timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were not understanding how we saw things folding out,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cNow we\u2019ve had much more opportunity to give them information about how we see deliveries happening, and for them to then take that and come back and say: \u2018This is what we think we can really deliver on.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force\u2019s current strategy is focused on how important it is to deliver the next iteration of tankers as quickly as possible after the end of the current KC-46 contract, without a significant gap. The service now plans to buy 179 KC-46s, and expects to receive the final KC-46 tankers in 2029.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter said the greatest difference between how the Air Force saw the KC-Y procurement proceeding and how industry saw it was on the need for an engineering and manufacturing development, or EMD, program. Industry felt it could meet the KC-Y requirement using existing, off-the-shelf technologies, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Hunter noted, it wouldn\u2019t have been that simple; the individual technologies might have been off-the-shelf, but they had never been integrated into the kind of system that KC-Y would have needed. That would have required conducting risk reduction through an EMD program to demonstrate the proposed design would work, and then take it into production, he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat was different about how we were seeing the schedule, versus how industry was seeing the schedule is, they were just seeing it as: You start a program, and then after 2, 3, 4 years we start building and delivering aircraft,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThey were leaving out, I think, the time frame for an EMD program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter said the Air Force also might not have had the money in its budget to begin and rapidly progress an EMD program for KC-Y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was some of the disconnect,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cThey had very favorable \u2014 for themselves \u2014 assumptions about: \u2018Hey, we can go very rapidly towards aircraft production without doing much of an EMD effort. And to the extent that any EMD would be required, you could start it right away, and you could proceed very quickly.\u2019 And you just have to bump that up against [the] reality of, what does the Air Force budget actually look like?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have generally higher expectations than industry sometimes does about how much we want to know in an EMD program before we initiate production,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force hopes its new strategy of a more limited purchase of tankers not far off from the previous KC-X requirements will be simpler and proceed more quickly, Hunter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur hope is that there would be very modest, if any, new technology integration required [for the] KC-135 replacement,\u201d he noted. \u201cBecause we have effectively done that with the [KC-46] aircraft that are out in the world flying today. So that does lend itself to the possibility that you could proceed to production significantly faster under this approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if he saw Lockheed and Airbus\u2019s proposed LMXT tanker as still having a shot, Hunter responded: \u201cAbsolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m assuming Lockheed will include that in their RFI,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that would that mean that it would still be under consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter explained that the main change to the requirements for the next tanker are coming in its communications architecture. The requirements for the KC-46 were set nearly 14 years ago, he said, and communications requirements have evolved considerably since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next aerial refueling fleet will also need much more ability to connect to and communicate with other aircraft or systems in a future war, he added, but those changes should not present a great challenge for industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing that as things that industry fundamentally doesn\u2019t know how to do, or that they\u2019ve never had to integrate before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe longer you take to get started, obviously, that has back-end consequences,\u201d Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter told Defense 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