After almost a year of disagreements between Boeing and the US Air Force, the two have thrashed out a revised delivery schedule for the KC- 46A Pegasus. The first KC-46A will be delivered in October 2018. The remaining 17 of the 18 contractually required aircraft available are to be delivered by April 2019.
Before any deliveries take place, the three remaining Category I deficiencies identified during flight-testing must be resolved. The deficiencies involve the aircraft’s Rockwell Collins Remote Vision System (RVS) and its Centreline Drogue System (CDS), which has unintentionally disconnected from receiver aircraft during refuelling. Boeing began trials of upgraded software for the RVS in March that are expected to resolve the issue.
Another software change will be made to correct the CDS breakaway deficiency. Flighttest verification of the Boeingdeveloped fixes that are currently being developed for these deficiencies has been scheduled for September. Under the terms of the KC-46A contract, Boeing has been responsible for costs incurred during the delayed development of the KC-46A, currently estimated at some $3 billion. David C Isby
