Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma City and Altus Air Force base are ready for the KC-46 Pegasus tankers produced by Boeing and based now in Wichita, Kansas. The KC-46 , a heavily remodified Boeing 767 is replacing the KC-135.
Crews of the refueling airplane will be trained at Altus AFB and the plane will undergo maintenance at Tinker AFB where new hangars were unveiled on Friday.The Pegasus at Tinker will result in 1,400 new jobs as the air base will be in charge of maintaining the new plane. At least 14 new hangars will be built at a cost of $500 million by 2028.
Boeing is scheduled to deliver 179 of the planes to the Air Force and the first are at the McConnell Air Force base in Wichita. Four will eventually be based there and four will be delivered to Altus to train crews.The new plane can carry 212,000 pounds and depending on its fuel storage configuration can carry up to 65,000 pounds of cargo.
Boeing experienced delays in production but when the unveiling of the plane was held several days ago at the Everett, Wash. Boeing President Leanne Caret surprised the crowd.
“I am delighted to be with you all today to celebrate the delivery of the first KC-46 tanker from Boeing to the United States Air Force,” she said. “Wait a minute! I’m sorry, I have made a mistake. I think I had that wrong. I believe I am delivering two KC-46 aircraft to the United States Air Force! Two!”
The KC-46 project has been a source of controversy for well more than a decade. After a back-and-forth over the contract award process, Boeing won the Air Force’s nod to build the first tanker in 2011. But the contract capped development costs for the first four tankers at $4.9 billion, and Boeing had to absorb all the costs over that amount.
Pre-tax cost overruns mounted to well over $3 billion, due largely to snags that were encountered during the longer-than-expected development and test program.
The journey isn’t over yet. In addition to the two jets already accepted, eight other KC-46 planes are undergoing customer acceptance testing, and scores more are being built. Boeing is currently on contract for 52 of what’s expected to be 179 tankers for the Air Force. The total acquisition cost is projected to exceed $44 billion.