Boeing receives Lot 12 contract from USAF for 15 more KC-46A tankers

Boeing has been awarded a Lot 12 contract by the US Air Force (USAF) for 15 additional KC-46A Pegasus aerial refuelling tankers, the company announced on 25 November 2025. The contract has been valued at USD 2.47 billion (EUR 2.13 billion).

The order means that there are now 183 KC-46A multi-mission tankers on contract or in service, including 98 delivered to the US Air Force, six to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and four contracted for the Israel Air Force.

Boeing noted that the USAF’s KC-46A fleet has now exceeded 150,000 flight hours, “reflecting high utilisation across training, operational sorties and global deployment missions”.

Jake Kwasnik, vice president and KC-46 programme manager at Boeing, was quoted in a company press release as stating, “Getting on contract helps ensure production stability, including our long-lead supply chain, to continue delivering the unmatched capability of the KC-46A.”

Deliveries of KC-46As to the USAF were halted in April 2025 after structural cracks were discovered on two aircraft in final assembly. Deliveries resumed in July 2025 once repairs were implemented and it was confirmed that the defects were not systemic.

The aircraft has also suffered issues with its aerial refuelling boom and associated remote vision system and was years behind schedule before the USAF received its first example of the type in January 2019. Boeing originally won the KC-X competition to provide the type in 2011, with first deliveries planned to have taken place by the end of 2017.

The USAF initially planned to acquire 179 KC-46s under the KC-X programme, but this number has since been raised to 188.

Boeing’s contract for the KC-X is a firm, fixed-price deal, meaning that the company has had to use billions of dollars of its own money to cover the various issues with the programme.