Boeing is to build 15 additional KC-46A Pegasus aerial refuelling aircraft under a Lot 11 contract award from the US Air Force (USAF) valued at USD 2.38 billion (EUR billion), the company announced on 21 November 2024.
The Lot 11 award means that Boeing now has 168 KC-46A multi-mission aerial refuellers on contract globally.
“We appreciate our continued partnership with the US Air Force,” Lynn Fox, vice president and KC-46 programme manager at Boeing, was quoted as saying in a company press release. “This is another big milestone for our team, and we look forward to delivering the world’s most advanced multi-mission aerial refuellers for years to come.”
In October 2024 the Pegasus made its inaugural full-scale operational deployment after the US Air Force Air Mobility Command approved the KC-46A for global combat operations in 2022.
In July 2024 the USAF awarded Boeing a contract to upgrade the mission readiness and performance of the KC-46A tanker. This builds on the aircraft’s 2023 Block 1 upgrade, further enhancing the tanker’s advanced communications, data connectivity and situational awareness for aircraft survivability and operational advantage in contested environments.
Since January 2019, when the USAF took delivery of its first KC-46A, the in-service Pegasus fleet has clocked up more than 100,000 flight hours and offloaded more than 90 million kg of fuel to receivers globally.
Boeing has so far delivered 89 KC-46As to the USAF and four to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Four KC-46s have also been ordered for the Israeli Air Force.
The KC-46A programme has not been with its problems, however. Technical issues that emerged during development and flight testing were subsequently compounded by production issues that included chronic leaks in the aircraft’s fuel system. The KC-46A consequently entered USAF service years behind its originally scheduled service entry date of August 2017 and has cost Boeing USD 7 billion in cost overruns. The firm fixed-price contract that Boeing secured for 179 aircraft in 2011 was capped at USD 4.9 billion.
