What Lays Beneath, The KC-46

The KC-46 is soon to replace the 50-year-old plus KC-135. It's an older 767 looking technology so what's the big deal about another Kerosene and Cargo tanker? New approach lights?

• F-35 like electronics
• Flexible Mission conversions
• Clandestinely Force Multiplication
• Secret Sauces the KC-135 couldn't even imagine
• Battlespace roll playing

These are few items just to mention and not all the subliminal attributes found within the flying gas station. Just think of the KC-46 more than just a highway stop on a back road. It's really a combat player where others only can dream of a fill-up and "go" kind of appendage.

The real reason it took so long to come to operational competency was was its complexity not unlike the F-35 program.  It fuels even flying motorcycles if asked! Its electronics goes from defensive data to offensive management for others to feed off of during a battle. Not to overrate the KC-46, fifty years of warfighting knowledge has been installed into the KC-46 since the 1960's era KC-135. It will take 2-3 years for the military to really get its arms around this beast. The boom operator sits comfortably up front watching a monitor hooked to high tech cameras for refueling connections instead of lying on the air warrior's belly manipulating the fuel nozzle into a flying receptacle under all conditions. That advancement alone makes you want to enlist into the US Air Force refueling mission.

The battlefield continues to change like in a video game when extra situations arise. The mission capability of the KC-46 is a broad stroke of the battlefield paint brush.

Day 1 of Battle:

• Refuel and Land at home base
• Change to medical evac and then pick-up wounded and comeback
• Change to Cargo and drop its load
• Load fighters and drop them into combat
• Detect adversaries and pass information through data links
• Jam incoming weapons
• Operate as an aviation command center when needed

Now you see the value of the KC-46, it's a big player

Secretly it allows all of the airwing to extend its missions simultaneously. It could refuel the F-15 and F-35 at the same time and send some helicopters in for Jet A. Could the KC-135 do that in one pass? No!

There are other things under its skin we can't even imagine and that is why developmental problems keep arising. It isn't just the boom operator station problem needing attention. It goes deeper but the press demands a story and the boom operator screen issues are as good as any while Boeing sorts out its secret sauce.

A tanker or KC-46, in this case, plays a vital roll in the battle space and has become a tool for combat success, not just a flying gas station, but a one-stop shop that continually changes when the battle rages on.