The Air Force has “successfully” completed the interim baseline review for the KC-46A tanker program, said Jennifer Cassidy, an Air Force spokeswoman based at the Pentagon. During the week-long review, completed Aug. 24, the Pentagon and the Boeing-led contractor team worked together to outline how the program will accomplish its goals, she told the Daily Report Tuesday. Boeing’s KC-46 beat out competitor EADS North America’s A330-based tanker model when the Air Force awarded the tanker contract in February. Boeing is expected to deliver 18 new-build aerial refuelers by 2017 under the initial fixed-priced-incentive contract for the tanker’s engineering and manufacturing development phase. The Air Force intends to purchase 179 KC-46As overall to replace its oldest KC-135s under work that has a total estimated value of more than $30 billion, depending on the options exercised. Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz has said the KC-46A program should serve as a guidepost for all future Air Force acquisition programs, which can reap the benefits of hard lessons learned over the last decade as the service worked to replace its aging tankers.
As with previous stealth aircraft unveilings, the Air Force’s imagery of the F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter has been doctored to keep adversaries guessing about its true shaping and design philosophy.