Last week, the KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling aircraft passed one of its two final milestones prior to entering service with the U.S. Air Force. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted the platform a supplemental type certificate. The KC-46 had previously received the FAA’s amended type certificate which addressed its basic airworthiness and performance. This second certificate addresses the aircraft’s refueling and mission avionics systems. While the Pegasus still must be granted its military type certificate, which covers specialized military functions and systems, all testing required for this certificate has been accomplished. Now nothing stands in the way of the KC-46 entering service. This is a rather remarkable achievement for a program that only began in 2011 and which even late last year was struggling to resolve problems with parts of its refueling system. The Air Force is now scheduled to receive its first production tanker this month with the remaining 17 aircraft.
The KC-46 is primarily intended to replace the aging KC-135 Stratotanker. The KC-46 will be a substantial improvement over the KC-135 regarding the amount of fuel it can deliver and its cargo capacity. Equally important, the maintenance costs associated with the KC-135 are becoming prohibitive. One reason the Air Force began pursuit of a new tanker at the turn of the millennium is that it could see the writing on the wall concerning the costs of maintaining the KC-135 fleet. Since 2001, with the expansion of global air operations as part of the war on terror, the tanker fleet has been employed more intensively than had been anticipated with a resulting increase in wear and tear on the aircraft and a sharp rise in maintenance costs.
The challenge posed by sustainment costs is the primary reason why the Air Force plans to begin its recapitalization of the tanker fleet by retiring its 58 KC-10 Extenders, even though this aircraft is newer and more capable than the KC-135. While the KC-10s continue to perform well, the higher total cost of ownership associated with the relatively small size of this fleet dictated the Air Force’s decision to retire them.
All the information in this video came from the:
► Thumbnail/Video just For Illustration
► Before Comment , Please connect your tongue to your brain!
► This video is made under fair use policy, also this material is made from public published domain for people with hearing and seeing disability.
• Watch more videos:
Tensions with China: U.S. looks to Deploy New Missiles to Asia
US Navy Awards Contract Modification to HII for CVN-74 RCOH planning
Rising Tensions in South China Sea cast Shadow over ASEAN summit
This Is How the U.S. Air Force Would Fight China
Why US Air Force Needs this DEADLY Fighter Jet?
#Aircraft #USAF
DISCLAIMER: Information, Facts or Opinion expressed in this Video are Presented as Sources and do not reflects views of Ultimate US Military and hence, Ultimate US Military is not liable or responsible for the same. The Sources are responsible for accuracy, Completeness, suitaibility and Validity of any information in this Documentary.
Title 17, US Code (Sections 107-118 of the copyright law, Act 1976):
All media in this video is used for purpose of review & commentary under terms of fair use.
All footage, & images used belong to their respective companies.
0 Comments