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Air Force

USAF Moving to Field KC-46A Communications ‘Backbone’ in Next Year

Frank Wolfe

Monday, August 7th, 2023

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USAF Moving to Field KC-46A Communications ‘Backbone’ in Next Year

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker prepares to refuel a KC-46 Pegasus during Mobility Guardian 23 over the Indo-Pacific region on July 14 (U.S. Air Force Photo)

DAYTON, Ohio--The U.S. Air Force intends to field a communications "backbone" for the Boeing [BA] KC-46A Pegasus in the next year in Capability Release 1 (CR1) of the service's Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) effort. The Air Force has said that the KC-46A will serve as an ABMS data link for combat forces, especially in large theaters, such as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. "I've narrowed the scope of that CR1 initial capability to just getting the organic communications capability integrated on…

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