At present, the US military mainly has four types of tankers in service, namely KC-135R/T, KC-10, KC-130T/J, and the latest KC-46A tanker.
According to statistics from "WORLD AIR FORCES 2022", there are 394 KC-135R/T refueling machines in service in the US military, 51 KC-10 refueling machines, 70 KC-130T/J refueling machines, and 48 KC-46A. The number of tankers in service exceeds the total of tankers in all other countries in the world.
KC-135
KC-10
KC-130
Among them, the KC-46A, as the latest tanker in service in the US military, was modified based on the Boeing 767 wide-body passenger aircraft . It has a wingspan of 47.5 meters, a length of 50.5 meters, a maximum take-off weight of 188 tons, and a maximum fuel load capacity of 96.2 tons, which is nearly 20 tons of fuel more than the KC-135, and has two types of refueling methods.
In addition, KC-46A has transportation capacity, can load 43 tons of cargo or more than 200 soldiers, and can also perform medical evacuation tasks. In the future, the KC-135 tanker will gradually replace the aerial position.
KC-46A
KC-46 Product features and functions
However, although KC-46 seems perfect, it was already a lot of trouble before:
was exposed during acceptance during the US government and the Air Force audit department, and related reception and mass production work were postponed.
According to industry insiders, there are still many defects of the KC-46A tanker that have not been resolved, but the US military is unable to accept the continued delay of the delivery of the KC-46A tanker, and is forced to pay additional funds to Boeing to solve the problem and allow the KC-46A tanker to serve with "sickness".
KC-Y and LMXT tankers
The development direction of US military tankers has always been the highly informatized airborne equipment, the low detection ability of radar , high survivability and multi-task ability. To this end, the US Air Force originally planned to retire in three stages and replace the currently in service air tanker:
Phase 1
was to purchase 179 new tankers (the current K-46A) through the KC-X bidding, replacing one-third of the KC-135 fleet, and deliver 15 aircraft per year.
Stage 2
was originally named KC-Y. It is planned to purchase updated tankers through bidding and purchase 15 aircraft per year. Delivery will be carried out starting in 2022, completing all KC-135 fleet replacements. But now the United States has abandoned its original KC-Y plan and adjusted it to continue purchasing the KC-46A upgraded version.
st Phase 3
Original plan was to develop KC-Z "advanced aerial tanker" to replace KC-10A aerial tanker. But now the original KC-Z plan has also been abandoned by the US Air Force and has been modified to purchase the third batch of KC-46A upgraded versions.
Lockheed Martin 's KC-Y, KC-Z, KC-X project products
. The KC-46 currently received by the US Air Force still belongs to the KC-X stage, and its upgraded version has also been included in the procurement scope of the KC-Z stage, but the KC-Y transition is still needed in the middle.
For this reason, the US Air Force has previously issued an information consultation letter, requiring American Airlines industry to provide a "bridge tanker" (transition tanker). To this end, Lockheed Martin and Airbus A330MRTT team provided a customized version of LMXT for the US Air Force.
LMXTh
LMXT is a modification based on the A330MRTT tanker. A330MRTTh has been exported to 13 countries and has good records of use. It has refueled the fighter , transport aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft of the United States and its allies in the theater environment, with a cumulative flight time of more than 250,000 hours.
As an improved version of A330MRTT, LMXT's team said it will further improve the range and refueling speed, adopt an open architecture, so that LMXT can be competent for the air-based nodes of multi-domain combat operations (MDO), and realize the interconnection between the tanker and the wide-area battlefield space.
A330MRTTh
In addition, Los Angeles also promised that if LMXT is selected by the US Air Force, it will set up a assembly line at its local Alabama factory, which will add about 1,300 jobs to the local area.
Advanced Aerial Refueling Systems Plan is added to
. At the end of June 2022, with the launch of the "Advanced Aerial Refueling System Family" (AAR FoS) project, the US Air Force will make major upgrades to existing refueling aircraft, seeking to define a more powerful future system. Refueling aircraft must not only have certain electronic countermeasure capabilities.At the same time, it is also necessary to have air connectivity, open architecture design, joint systems and data flows, and new systems that can replace existing positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) with clear line of sight (LOS) and super-line vision (BLOS) and future joint global command and control (JADC2) systems.
According to the Air Force, the AAR FoS project will make future missions more flexible for tankers to promote their rapid conversion capabilities, improve fuel rates, maintenance procedures, airport access, and reduce maintenance and logistical support needs. This dual-track approach to developing the overall demand for new tankers while gradual upgrades will improve the U.S. Air Force's tanker phase process.
According to the planning of the AAR FoS project, the current upgrade work is mainly aimed at the models KC-46A and KC-135R/T, and will be carried out using relatively mature and stable technologies.
KC-Z stage multiple possibilities
As for KC-Z, although KC-46 has been initially entered the KC-Z bidding range, there is still another voice among the top leaders of the US Air Force:
The future KC-Z may be a smaller and stealth-able aircraft that can escort fighter jets and bomber into tightly defended mission airspace. In addition, the tanker must have stronger survivability and mission performance, as well as situational awareness capabilities, and electronic warfare (EW) and electronic attack (EA) capabilities to meet the interoperability with external autonomous collaboration platforms.
The addition of electronic warfare capabilities can be contacted by the US Air Force's previous modification of the B-52 bomber . Previously, the US Air Force tried to install advanced electronic countermeasures equipment for the B-52 bomber, but the plan was cancelled many times due to budget issues. The air tanker is close to the mission airspace, which is very suitable for both the battlefield electronic confrontation.
B-52
However, although the landing of the KC-Y stage has been "arrow on the string", in fact, since the 2023 fiscal year defense budget was submitted, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has been downplaying the competition for KC-Y "bridge tanker".
He believes that according to the standards set by the US Air Force, the most cost-effective one may be the upgraded version of the Boeing KC-46A. Some Air Force officials also thought that if a new tanker platform was added, it would require additional logistical support, spare parts supply and military facilities to accommodate the aircraft. However, at present, since the problems with the KC-46A remote vision system (RVS) have not been resolved, although the Air Force and Boeing have reached an cost sharing agreement for upgrading RVS, the improved system will not be put into use within a few years. In this context, the LMTX program and the proposal of AAR FoS add more possibilities to the implementation practices of KC-Y and KC-Z. As for what changes will be made in the implementation practice, it is worth paying attention to.
