The Kerosene and Cargo Plane program 46 has arrived to the USAF

It was a matter of time this would happen and consuming the time it took. Boeing let loose two of its KC-46's today giving the Airforce a try on its own with the KC-46. If you thought it was flawed and full of problems according to every languishing journal in the press about the KC-46, it's natural to report even the dust balls in the cargo hold was found expressing a high volume of vitriolic comment as the social media authority. However, with the KC-problems, the Airforce has taken on two KC-46's with a Boeing promise to fix those same problems. If this makes sense then you are a defense contractor at heart.

Know this:

The Airforce and Boeing have been talking a long time about glitches and operational weaknesses. Both major players have spent copious amounts of time fixing hundreds of items during the first tranche of KC-46's delivered. The big problem publicized is the boom operators occasional vision glare during refueling with a receiver aircraft when the light angles just right. There is a workaround making the fuel transfer not an exact straight line operation of doing a fuel load at any angle of operation. The aircraft has to change its heading slightly to do the job. At best it could be called an awkward moment but manageable and not mission ending at all. This could be a three-year fix to develop new screens and software to mitigate the occasional glare problem at certain angles of light in rare cases.

The countless other checklist fix items are worked through during its initial operations with the Airforce which can be handled as encountered or tested once again as a defective glitch. The KC-46 will need operational time flying to fully wring out the kinks but the Airforce has seen enough from Boeing that the two principals will in a short time make this a valuable asset for the military. In fact, the Airforce cannot dilly dally about the program as its own legacy tanker dies of old age. It must induct a better tanker in the KC-46 even with some flaws rather than wait for all the fixes to come about. It can fly the KC-46 on missions today better than what it has on its own inventory like the KC-135. The time has come to backfill the airforce with manageable new tankers replacing its old tankers as fast as it can.

The Airforce would have not taken these first two from Boeing unless the light was seen from the end of the tunnel. The risk is very low and all fixes are now considered doable during the next years of operations.