New Air Force Tanker Unable to Refuel Planes

Boeing is set to miss a significant contractual deadline in its KC-46 tanker program.

According to a May 27, 2016 Defense News article, the contractor was supposed to deliver 18 aircraft to the Air Force by August 2017, the latest (and most significant) of many delays in the KC-46 program.  The planes will now arrive by January 2018.

Intended to replace the KC-135 tanker, the new refueling aircraft has been unable to, you guessed it, refuel planes.  Problems have cropped up with the KC-46’s boom, the pipe that extends from the aircraft to trailing planes in order to transmit fuel.

According to a May 27, 2016 Defense One article

The delay, announced on Friday afternoon before the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the United States, comes after countless warnings that there was no more margin for error in the project’s schedule due to numerous technical problems that have cropped up over the past four years.

“Technical challenges with [the] boom design and issues with certification of the centerline drogue system and wing air refueling pods have driven delays to low rate production approval and initial aircraft deliveries,” Brig. Gen. Duke Richardson, the program executive officer for tankers, said in a statement.

This bit of bad news comes at a critical time for the KC-46.  According to Defense One:

The Air Force was supposed to decide in April whether to buy more planes beyond the first 18. That decision has now been pushed to August. The Air Force plans to buy a total of 179 KC-46 tankers from Boeing.

Despite the delays, the Air Force has structured its contract with Boeing so taxpayers do not have to pay for cost increases. To date, the company has had to eat $1.3 billion, the latest $156 million “charge” being announced in April.