Construction will begin this year on KC-46A facilities at Altus AFB, Okla., future home of the tanker’s formal training unit, and McConnell AFB, Kansas, the first Active Duty-led main operating base, now that basing decisions have been finalized. “AFCEC did an exceptional job in meeting the aggressive strategic basing timeline and is now ready to execute a facility construction program in line with the first aircraft delivery in 2016,” said Alexander Karibian, the AMC/A7 KC-46A lead. McConnell is expected to spend more than $219 million on eight construction projects in Fiscal 2014, including “one- and three-bay maintenance hangars, a two-bay corrosion control and fuel cell maintenance hangar, a flight simulator building, and a dormitory,” states a May 16 release. The base will spend another $34 million on five additional projects in Fiscal 2015, states the release. Altus is slated to spend more than $30 million on five projects in 2014, including “construction of a fuselage trainer, a flight trainer simulator facility, squadron operations facility addition, and an addition to a fuel cell hangar, as well as modifications and renovations to an existing Operations Group facility. Tinker AFB, Okla., will also see some construction beginning in Fiscal 2015 as it prepares to provide depot maintenance for the KC-46A.
Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.