Military

Boeing Completes Initial Tanker Refueling Airworthiness Flight

Paul Ausick

Published: November 18, 2015 1:25 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:02 pm

Late last week, Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) completed the aerial refueling initial airworthiness testing for its KC-46A tanker. The trial was part of a six-hour flight on Thursday and was reported on Friday by the company.

According to Jane’s, the boom and drogue systems were deployed at various speeds and flight conditions and the airworthiness trial was the first of two final tests as the new tanker prepares to complete its aerial refueling test. The second trial that needs to be completed before the aerial refueling test is a fuel dock that will let Boeing engineers validate the plane’s fuel transfer control systems.

Once the KC-46A completes the fuel transfer test successfully, Boeing is expected to begin conducting full refueling flight tests with six different Air Force, Marine, and Navy aircraft before an April 2016 (Milestone C) decision.

That decision is the formal go-no-go point for the first 18 tankers that Boeing is expected to deliver to the Air Force by August of 2017. A total of 179 new tankers are expected to be built by 2027, and the total value of the contract, including maintenance, is expected come in around $100 billion over the plane’s lifetime.

In addition to the U.S. Air Force order for 179 tankers, Japan has plans to acquire three KC-46As for its Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF). Boeing was the only bidder for the order, and Japan becomes the company’s first international customer for the new tanker. The country’s air service chose the new Pegasus tanker “because it can refuel U.S. fighter planes heading to combat zones in the event of a Japan-U.S. joint military operation, which could be made possible by the new security legislation under deliberation in the Diet,” according to The Asahi Shimbun. The paper went on to note that the highly contentious legislation “would remove Japan’s long-held ban on the exercise of the right to collective self-defense and greatly expand the overseas role of the ASDF.”

Boeing stock traded up about 1% shortly after the noon hour on Wednesday, at $147.57 in a 52-week range of $115.14 to $158.83.

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