The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing [BA] a more than $398 million contract for two KC-46A tankers for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, DoD said on Nov. 29.
Work on the two tankers is to be completed in Everett, Wash., by June 30, 2025.
Japan has six KC-46A tankers, and Boeing delivered the first in October last year and a second in February, the company said.
James Burgess, a Boeing vice president and KC-46 program manager, said in a company statement on Nov. 29 that “the growing global KC-46A fleet increases the interoperability advantages for our customers, ensuring mission readiness as well as value for their investment.”
“Designed to refuel all allied and coalition military aircraft compatible with international aerial refueling procedures, the proven Pegasus has flown more than 10,000 sorties and is delivering millions of pounds of fuel every month to allied forces around the globe,” Boeing said. “In addition to refueling, the KC-46A delivers multi-mission capabilities necessary for the 21st century fleet, including data connectivity and personnel, cargo and aeromedical transportation.”
Boeing said that it has delivered 67 KC-46A tankers, including 65 to the U.S. Air Force and the two to Japan.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed on a Remote Vision System (RVS) 2.0 redesign of the original RVS on April 2, 2020 to fix faulty RVS depth perception, a shortfall that may lead to scraping of the boom on aircraft being refueled–damage that can be especially perilous for low-observable aircraft, such as the F-22 and F-35 fighters.
Unlike the KC-135 but like the KC-10, the KC-46A, a modified Boeing 767 airliner, also has a hose-and-drogue system to refuel U.S. Navy and NATO planes.
The Air Force said that it foresees fielding RVS 2.0 for the KC-46A in October 2025–a delay of 19 months (Defense Daily, Oct. 7). In 2020, the Air Force said that by 2023 it planned to field RVS 2.0, which is to have 4K color cameras, operator stations with larger screens, a laser ranger for refueling aircraft distance measurement and boom assistance augmented reality.