The air force ultimately plans to buy 179 tankers to replace the oldest of more than 400 Boeing KC-135s over the next decade.
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Work is now underway to award the first two low rate initial production lots within the next 30 days. Boeing said in July that it would report a .1 billion after-tax accounting charge for the second quarter, primarily because of setbacks involving passenger planes but also due to a $393 million loss stemming from delays on the KC-46.
“I commend the team for diligently working through some hard technical challenges”, said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. Test proved the system worked and Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics OK’d Milestone C after reviewing all the data. “Our Air Force and Boeing team stepped up to meet the recent challenges”. Boeing installed hydraulic pressure relief valves to alleviate loads and last month all remaining demonstrations were quickly completed. “My hat’s off to them and our program leads”.
The Air Force said in June that it was seeking compensation from Boeing for delays in the program.
Boeing has been flying the tanker with its specialized refueling equipment for almost 11 months, demonstrating the aircraft’s capability passing fuel to Air Force, Marines and Navy jets.
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That forced a redesign of parts of the system and partially contributed to delayed first deliveries of the tanker by five months, pushing completion of the first 18 jets’ scheduled arrival to the Air Force to early 2018. The aircraft manufacturer is responsible to bear any expense above $4.9 billion that was initially allotted by the Air Force in the fixed-price contract signed among the two parties.
