The Air Force's New KC-46 Pegasus Tanker Has A Problem: It Could ‘Unstealth’ a Stealth Bomber

Sebastien Roblin

Security,

So how do we fix it?

On January 10, the U.S. Air Force formally accepted delivery of its first brand-new KC-46 Pegasus tanker, an adaptation of the civilian Boeing 767 widebody airliner into a giant flying gas station and transport plane that can haul over 212,000 pounds of jet fuel. Four KC-46s are planned to begin service with the 22^nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell AFB, Kansas, by February, followed by aircraft deliveries to the 97^th Wing in Air Mobility Wing at Altus AFB, Oklahoma. The air force may eventually seek to procure as many as 179 KC-46s.

However, the long-awaited tankers are being accepted into service despite still having Category-1 deficiencies—that is, the sort which usually disqualify a plane from procurement until they are resolved. In fact, the contract stipulates that the air force can withhold up to $28 million per plane on the $4.9 billion contract for fifty-two tankers until the bugs are fixed!

However, the new plans can’t arrive soon enough for the air force. Currently, it largely depends on nearly 400 aging KC-135 Stratotankers—a large portion in Air National Guard units—to keep its warplanes flying in the air. (There are also fifty-nine more modern KC-10 Extenders, based on the DC-10.) But the KC-135 is based on the 707 airliner which entered service in 1957. The Stratotankers routinely flying extremely long hours, and the aircraft are nearing the end of their services lives. Keeping the aging inventory in flyable condition will increasingly require large sums that could instead go to newer planes like the Pegasus.

Without tankers, though, the Pentagon’s staggering fleet of thousands of land- and carrier-based warplanes quite simply can’t fly far enough to perform many of their missions. Even long-range bombers like the stealthy B-2 Spirit bomber usually receive multiple aerial refueling to reach targets across the globe.