US Air Force confident in fix for Boeing KC-46 refueling tanker

By Dan Catchpole

June 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Air Force is confident there is a solution to long-standing problems with a key system on Boeing’s KC-46 aerial refueling tanker, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

Boeing and the Air Force have been trying for several years to resolve problems with the tanker’s remote vision system, which is critical for mid-air refueling with the plane’s boom, a rigid pipe used to transfer fuel.

“I think the good news is that we believe we’ve refined and tested the new 2.0 vision system, and we should start moving it to the production line in ’28,” Meink said at Tuesday’s defense appropriations subcommittee hearing.

This is five years later than originally planned.

The company has delivered more than 100 of the 188 tankers the Air Force ordered and is considering purchasing 75 more, for a total of 263.

Boeing lost more than $7 billion on the fixed-price contract for the 767 commercial model derivative, leaving it vulnerable to cost overruns.

Air Force officials have said they will order more tankers only if Boeing resolves the ongoing problems.

The US aircraft manufacturer announced on June 4 that it had completed the first flight test of its Remote Viewing System 2.0 upgrade.

The Air Force announced in May that it would take seven years to equip existing aircraft with the new system.

The KC-46 also had problems with leaks in its boom and fuel system.

“Frankly, this current contract has been a bad contract over the last decade,” Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg told investors in January.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Jamie Freed)