KC-46 Pegasus - Tanker Replacement - Program
By 2020, the growing difficulties of the program caused Boeing's spending to almost double, increasing by $4.6bn over the initial budget ($4.9bn). Boeing is stuck in a fixed-price contract for which it is responsible for paying all expenses beyond the initial $4.9bn awarded for the development of the aircraft.
Over 700 KC-135s were produced with 400 still in service by 2014, with fifty-two years average age. The Air Force was very quickly approaching that time frame where there will be no pilot in the inventory -- Active Duty, Guard or Reserve -- who was older than the airplane he or she was flying. The KC-10 was coming on 29 years old average age of the fleet. Only 59 were still in service.
The Boeing Company was awarded a contract for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase of the KC-46 program on Feb. 24, 2011. The initial flight of the KC-46A aircraft is scheduled for late calendar year 2014. The current contract, with options, provides the Air Mobility Command an inventory of 179 KC-46 tankers.
The KC-46 program is one of only a few major weapon system programs in recent years to employ a fixed price development contract. In the past, DOD has typically used cost-reimbursement contracts in which the government pays all allowable costs incurred by the contractor. Recent legislation and defense policy now emphasize the use of fixed price development contracts, where warranted, to limit the government’s exposure to cost increases. Defense officials believe that a fixed price development contract is appropriate for this program because KC-46 development is considered to be a relatively low-risk effort to integrate mostly mature military technologies onto a well-defined commercial derivative aircraft.
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force celebrated a much anticipated milestone 25 September 2015 when the KC-46A Pegasus Tanker aircraft took off on its inaugural flight from Paine Field in Everett, Wash. Test pilots conducted a four-hour flight, during which they performed a series of system checks before landing at Boeing Field in Seattle. Boeing would conduct a post-flight inspection and calibrate instrumentation before the next series of flights, during which the tanker boom and wing aerial refueling pod systems will be deployed. Before the end of the year, plans call for the KC-46 to conduct aerial refueling flights with a number of U.S. Air Force aircraft.
James Drew, writing in Flight GLobal on 04 April 2016, reported that "The Boeing C-17 heavy cargo aircraft has become the sticking point in an otherwise speedy KC-46A aerial refuelling demonstration phase, with officials confirming that “higher-than-expected boom axial loads” have delayed trials with that aircraft and the A-10 attack airplane. C-17 testing began shortly after the successful passage of fuel to a Lockheed Martin F-16C in January, but with the turbulent “bow wave effect” generated by two large aircraft flying in line, the refuelling system indicated that the loads were too high to begin passing fuel."
On May 27, 2016 the US Air Force movedits formal production decision on the KC-46 tanker program — known as Milestone C— from June 2016 to August 2016 to allow additional time to implement the solution to a refueling boom loads issue identified during flight testing earlier in 2016. The Air Force also released an updated projection from Boeing for initial KC-46 deliveries and the expected timing for delivery of the first 18 certified tanker aircraft, a milestone known as Required Assets Available (RAA). Due to ongoing complexities associated with qualification and certification of the aircraft’s centerline drogue and wing-aerial refueling pod (WARP) systems, and the previously announced higher volume of change incorporation to bring the first 18 aircraft up to the certification configuration, the first tanker delivery moved from March 2017 to August 2017 with the 18th aircraft delivered in January 2018.
The underlying production system remained on track, and Boeing would have more than 18 aircraft through the factory line and in various stages of final change incorporation and certification by August 2017. The first 18 aircraft would be equipped with refueling boom and centerline drogue refueling capabilities as well as all other contract required capability except WARPs. The WARP systems required to complete full contractual RAA would be delivered separately in October 2018.
Air Force officials announced fives bases as candidates for the next round of active duty-led KC-46A Pegasus basing on 23 June 2016. The bases include Dover Air Force Base, Delaware; Fairchild AFB, Washington; Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota; Travis AFB, California; and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. The KC-46As are expected to begin arriving at the second active duty-led global mobility wing in fiscal year 2020.
By May 2017 Boeing was working toward its goal of delivering the first KC-46 Pegasus to the Air Force sometime in 2017. At tat time, the aircraft was going through federal certification, and the Air Force was expecting 18 K-46s by "early" 2018.
The KC-46 program completed all planned flight test events necessary for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aircraft Amended Type Certificate of the Boeing 767-2C aircraft in July 2017. A few remaining flights are expected to satisfy FAA requirements during the final review process. The program is continuing to accomplish FAA Supplemental Type Certificate test events to complete FAA certification of the KC-46A aircraft. Flight testing to certify the aerial refueling (AR) system and the first eight aircraft for receiver operations with the KC-46A began in October 2017. Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) testing was not accomplished in accordance with the DOT&E-approved Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP) and the LFT&E Strategy. While testing indicated the KC-46A flight-critical systems and boom refueling systems are likely survivable to the 6 decibel (dB) contractual requirement, the Program Office approved verification plan did not demonstrate the residual KC-46A mission systems capability during such an event. As of 2017, IOT&E was likely to start in January 2019 or later. Schedule analysis identified two key milestones affecting IOT&E start: (1) completion of AR certification of the initial group of three receivers before the beginning of operational aircrew training and (2) certification of all 18 receivers planned to participate in operational test by the mid-point of IOT&E. KC–46A program costs remained stable, but the delivery schedule were further delayed. The Air Force reported three category one deficiencies including two for the remote vision system (RVS) and one for the center-line drogue system (CDS). The Government Accountability Office (GAO) observed in its report GAO–18–353 that the program updated its delivery schedule in 2017 to allow the defense contractor to delay delivery of the first 18 fully capable aircraft by 14 months. This delay moved the delivery date from August 2017 to October 2018. According to a schedule risk assessment and GAO’s analysis, if risk is not mitigated, deliveries could be delayed further to May 2019, 21 months from the originally scheduled delivery. The continued delays were set to cause a backup of unaccepted aircraft awaiting the completion of contractual test and documentation requirements. The defense manufacturer believed that it will meet the current delivery schedule and that it had taken appropriate steps to address all category one deficiencies by improving the RVS visual display and fine-tuning CDS software to reduce the number of unintended refueling disconnects.
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