NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. —The Air Force has set Sept. 25 as the new first flight date for its KC-46A refueling tanker, but a long-term Continuing Resolution (CR) could spell more trouble for the program, its program executive officer said on Tuesday.
Under the current schedule, the KC-46A program will hit a Milestone C decision in April 2016, after which it is scheduled to award contracts to Boeing [BA] for the first two lots of low-rate initial production aircraft, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Duke Richardson, program executive officer for tankers.
“LRIP Lot 2 is fiscal year 2016 funding, so if we get into a CR situation, it will create a very large problem for this program” in that it will not be able to award a contract as planned for 12 aircraft, he said during a speech at the Air Force Association’s Air and Space Conference.
Under the terms of its contract, the Air Force could buy anywhere from eight to 11 aircraft during LRIP Lot 2 and pay a penalty to Boeing. However, buying fewer than eight aircraft would result in the contract being broken, and a yearlong CR would only allow for the purchase of seven aircraft, he told reporters after the briefing.
“This contract that we have is a very nice contract in a lot of ways, but it’s also fairly stringent in terms of what it requires of the government,” he said. “It requires funding stability and requirements stability. Up to this point we have delivered both.”
Throughout his speech, Richardson stated that the service is struggling keeping the program on schedule, not with the performance of the aircraft.
Under the current contract, Boeing is required to deliver the first 18 tankers by August 2017. Richardson said he was “cautiously confident” that the company would meet the “required assets available” deadline, but noted that technical issues have eaten away all of the slack built into the schedule.
The service is preparing the first fully equipped KC-46A aircraft, called EMD2, for its inaugural flight on Sept. 25, he said. The flight was originally scheduled for April, but problems—including a recent fuel contamination issue—pushed back that date.
Aerial refueling demonstrations are scheduled to begin early next year.