{"id":66981,"date":"2023-11-29T15:41:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T15:41:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/11\/29\/air-force-awards-boeing-23b-contract-for-15-more-kc-46s\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:03:20","slug":"air-force-awards-boeing-23b-contract-for-15-more-kc-46s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2023\/11\/29\/air-force-awards-boeing-23b-contract-for-15-more-kc-46s\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force awards Boeing $2.3B contract for 15 more KC-46s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Air Force has awarded Boeing a $2.3 billion contract for 15 more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2023\/02\/22\/after-long-costly-road-air-force-happy-with-new-kc-46-vision-system\/\" target=\"_blank\">KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The award, announced by the Pentagon Tuesday evening, brings to 153 the number of KC-46s Boeing has on contract to build for the United States and allies. The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s, and Boeing said it has so far delivered 76 of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force has two KC-46s in its fleet and four more on contract with Boeing, and Israel has ordered four of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pentagon said work on these aircraft, which will be the KC-46\u2032s tenth production lot, is expected to be complete by the end of July 2027. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2023\/06\/20\/boeing-wants-to-boost-kc-46-defenses-as-air-force-weighs-tanker-path\/\" target=\"_blank\">Boeing builds KC-46s<\/a> at its factory in Everett, Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This contract follows another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2023\/01\/30\/us-air-force-awards-boeing-23b-contract-for-15-more-kc-46s\/\" target=\"_blank\">issued in January for the ninth production lot<\/a>, which was also for 15 tankers and valued at $2.3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force has steadily increased the presence of the KC-46 in its fleet and its abilities. In September 2022, the service cleared the KC-46 to refuel all aircraft, except the A-10 Warthog, and carry out all refueling missions around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July, Travis Air Force Base in California received its first of 24 planned KC-46s, which will replace the base\u2019s aging KC-10 Extenders. Travis, the largest and furthest west of Air Mobility Command\u2019s installations, is nicknamed the \u201cGateway to the Pacific\u201d due to its location and status as a major hub for logistics and other mobility operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KC-46s also took part in July\u2019s Mobility Guardian 23 exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, during which the tankers flew sorties of up to 35 hours straight. The service said in a release this showed the aircraft\u2019s ability to carry out complex long-distance, long-duration missions to refuel fighters and other aircraft during operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this fall, five KC-46s and about 12 service members from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey took part in a force generation certification event during the two-week Neptune Series exercise at Travis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to aerial refueling, the KC-46 can transport cargo, passengers and medical patients in aeromedical evacuation support missions, and can share data among other aircraft and ground operations centers to provide a fuller picture of the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force awarded Boeing a $184 million contract in March to upgrade the KC-46\u2032s communications systems with capabilities including antijamming and encryption features for its line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force also may buy an additional wave of 75 KC-46s as part of its planned recapitalization of its KC-135 fleet. Boeing\u2019s chances of scoring that contract rose in October, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2023\/10\/23\/lockheed-drops-us-air-force-tanker-bid-partner-airbus-to-go-it-alone\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lockheed Martin announced it would not compete<\/a> for the interim tanker. But Airbus, which had partnered with Lockheed to jointly pitch their LMXT tanker, said it still plans to compete to replace the KC-135s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The award brings to 153 the number of KC-46s Boeing is on contract to build worldwide for the United States and allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":118567,"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":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3412],"class_list":["post-66981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"F3RG5JWAFRCZ7GX5T4QLRP4FRY","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2023\/11\/29\/air-force-awards-boeing-23b-contract-for-15-more-kc-46s\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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