The 60th Air Mobility Wing conducted its final 'A-check' inspection on their KC-10 Extender fleet at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. There are no further inspections scheduled for the fleet before the aircraft's decommission in September.
KC-135 Stratotankers have arrived in Saudi Arabia to replace the KC-10s which recently left the region for good after 30-plus years of service. The aerial tankers from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., arrived at Prince Sultan Air Base on Oct. 2. The 384th Expeditionary Air ...
Travis Air Force Base, Calif., became the sixth main operating base for the KC-46 on July 28, receiving its first Pegasus tanker—also the first accepted by the Air Force from Boeing since March, when a fuel tank problem halted deliveries.
Lockheed Martin is pitching its Airbus A330-based LMXT tanker as a “mothership” for the Air Force’s planned fleet of small, stealthy tankers—a rationale company officials hope will overcome the service’s reticence to open its so-called “bridge tanker” buy to competition.
The Air Force has officially launched its Next-Generation Air-Refueling System, a stealthy tanker to begin operations circa 2040. A Request for Information put out to industry said USAF will consider all manner of novel and innovative ideas for the next tanker, but the technologies it ...
Air & Space Forces Magazine notes the deaths in 2022 of a number of notable Airman and national security figures who have made a lasting contribution to air and space power through their leadership and technical expertise.
The KC-46 boom operators stopped talking and leaned in as Maryland Air National Guard F-16s approached on a refueling mission over upstate New York. The fighters were visible on a 1,080-pixel, black-and-white screen. The cockpit went quiet, too, and the pilot flipped to a visual ...
Just five U.S. aircraft remain to be certified with the KC-46 tanker for operational missions designated by U.S. Transportation Command, Air Mobility Command said. The new tanker is certified for some 97 percent of mission taskings now, but it's unclear when the next capability release ...
Development of the KC-46 Pegasus tanker might have fared better if it had been a cost-plus, rather than a fixed-price program, and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, "I'll take the hit" for that approach. Though progress has been slower, the KC-46 is now ready ...
A USAF B-52 flew through the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility on March 29, integrating with American F-22s and aircraft from nine other countries over the Middle East, U.S. Air Forces Central Command announced April 2.
Legacy aircraft such as the KC-10, KC-135, E-8C JSTARS, RC-135, and RQ-4 all flew over eastern NATO allies including Poland and Romania in response to Russian aggression. But these platforms still need to be retired so the Air Force can modernize, Chief of Staff Gen. ...
The Air Force has managed to address its gap in aerial refueling capability thanks to the KC-46 tanker being cleared for limited operations and the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard stepping up to take on a bigger workload, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. ...