The 84th KC-46A has entered service with the US Air Force ahead of its upcoming software upgrades. (Photo: Boeing/Craig Larsen)
Boeing has won a US$16.8 million contract with the US Air Force for software and data enhancements to the KC-46A tanker aircraft. The contract is expected to enhance the aircraft’s mission readiness and performance in a range of situations.
The KC-46A was originally a Boeing build, adapted from its own 767 airliner. Having replaced the older Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker in 2019, the US Air Force plans to add 197 KC-46A aircraft to its arsenal by 2027.
The new software upgrades will tune the onboard performance tool, allowing the aircraft to streamline its cargo loading, takeoff and landing data management, and speed up the tanker’s mission launch readiness. Faster mission launches will lead to greater efficiency for the platform, both on a per-mission basis and overall as a procurement.
“The US Air Force and allies are performing crucial global missions with the growing KC-46A tanker fleet and finding ways to extract more capability from the platform,” said Lynn Fox, KC-46 vice-president and programme manager at Boeing. “We’re collaborating to integrate enhancements like these and bring additional capabilities to the battlespace as rapidly as possible to meet the evolving needs of the mission.”
The upgrades follow a Block 1 contract in 2023, which enhanced the KC-46A’s communications, data connectivity and situational awareness in contested environments.
Compared to the KC-135, the KC-46A carries three times more cargo pallets, up to twice as many passengers and more than 30% more aeromedical evacuation patients. The latest software upgrades are designed to help it load and deliver them through a much more streamlined and time-efficient process.
While the US Air Force is by far the major customer for the KC-46A, Boeing has also sold the aircraft – which has a significant mission specialism as a refuelling vessel – to the Israeli Air Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.
The first representative Eurofighter Typhoon flew in 1994 and entered operational service in 2003. Two decades later the company is working to ensure the platform’s relevance beyond the middle of the century.
The KC-390 demonstrator was en route to Brazil after a display at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK.
The delivery would mark an end to long delays in the programme with additional aircraft expected through to 2027.
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