The Air Force’s KC-46A tanker program is “on cost and on schedule,” and is “in a real healthy place,” said Acting Secretary Eric Fanning on Monday. “Everything is coming together really well,” he said in a Sept. 9 interview with American Forces Press Service, the Pentagon’s press arm. Fanning attributed the program’s success to date to the Air Force clearly defining the KC-46’s requirements and resisting the urge to change them during the course of the tanker’s development. The Air Force intends to procure 179 KC-46s from Boeing to replace its oldest KC-135 tankers. Fanning recently visited the company’s KC-46 assembly plant in Everett, Wash., where the first two airframes are in various stages of build. Fanning called the KC-46 “truly one of the most important backbone platforms for the joint fight.” Just last week, the Air Force announced it had closed the critical design review for the KC-46, thereby locking down the tanker’s design and clearing the way for Boeing to progress into the tanker’s manufacturing and developmental test phases. (AFPS report by Jim Garamone)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.