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Budget

Senate Panel Wants Air Force To Study Optionally Unmanned Tankers

By Marc Selinger

Thursday, June 7th, 2018

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Senate Panel Wants Air Force To Study Optionally Unmanned Tankers

A KC-46A test plane at Boeing Field in Seattle. (Photo by Marc Selinger/Defense Daily)

Concerned about growing threats to the U.S. Air Force’s manned refueling aircraft, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has asked the service to explore alternatives, including optionally unmanned tankers.According to a newly released report explaining the committee’s fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill, the Air Force’s existing KC-135 Stratotanker and its new KC-46A Pegasus, which are both manned, are “large, high-value aircraft,” making them “increasingly difficult to protect.” As a result, the committee added $10 million "to prototype a contested-environment tanker.” “The…

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