USAF announces Boeing has won the KC-X tanker replacement program with the company’s 767-based NewGen Tanker beating the A330-based aircraft offered by EADS North America. USAF expects Boeing to deliver 18 new tankers by 2017 as part of the 179-aircraft buy in the KC-X contract. USAF plans to follow with KC-Y and KC-Z programs to replace its entire KC-135 fleet and KC- 10 tankers. USAF designates the KC-X tanker, KC-46A.
More than 20 tankers lined the runway at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., on March 27, for an “elephant walk” and the base’s largest mass launch of aircraft ever. Sixteen KC-46s and five KC-135s participated in the flush, with aircraft and Airmen from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing and the 931st…