Air Force awards Boeing $2.4 billion contract for KC-46 tankers

The Air Force awarded Boeing a $2.4 billion contract Thursday to buy 15 more KC-46A Pegasus refueling tankers.

The KC-46 award, which covers the tankers’ 11th lot, will bring the number Boeing has on contract to 168 worldwide, the company said in a release.

Boeing has delivered 89 KC-46s to the Air Force since 2019, as well as another four to the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Israel is buying four KC-46s from Boeing, with delivery starting in 2025.

The work on the 15 KC-46s, which are built at Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington, should be complete by the end of June 2028, according to the Pentagon. The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s across 13 lots, though the service could buy more as an interim solution as it retires the KC-135.

The KC-46 is taking on an increasingly important role in the Air Force’s fleet as the service modernizes and retires older tankers. The service’s last KC-10 Extender, which was at Travis Air Force Base in California, was decommissioned in September.

In October, the Air Force deployed a squadron of KC-46s to the Middle East for the Pegasus’ first full operational deployment.

“While the KC-46A has operated in [the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility] previously, this deployment is building the foundation for sustained KC-46A expeditionary operations,” Maj. Andrew Doenitz, commander of the 305th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, said in a release on the deployment.

But what the service’s future fleet might look like remains in flux. The Air Force wants to introduce a future tanker dubbed NGAS, or next-generation aerial refueling system, in the 2030s. NGAS could have a blended wing design and stealth capabilities and is intended to be a more survivable tanker capable of operating in contested airspace against a major adversary such as China.

However, the Air Force has several other key fleet areas that also need modernization as the service faces a major budget crunch. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall cautioned earlier this month that the service may not be able to afford a combination of the NGAS tanker, a future fighter known as Next Generation Air Dominance and autonomous drone wingmen called Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

For years, the KC-46 program has been troubled by cost overruns, quality problems and issues with its remote refueling vision system, racking up billions of dollars in charges for Boeing. Most recently, Boeing reported a $661 million charge on the KC-46, which was caused in part by a lengthy machinist strike.

Boeing also received another contract, worth nearly $1.7 billion, from the Navy on Thursday to provide seven P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.

These additional seven P-8s will bring the number on contract for the Navy up to 135 and to 207 worldwide. The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Norway, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany and Canada are now P-8 customers for Boeing, and 170 Poseidons are now either delivered or in service worldwide.