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KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

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KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

Post by eagle driver » Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:50 am

AMC Modernizing Legacy Aircraft as it Pushes for KC-46 Deliveries in 2018

9/19/2017

Brian Everstine
Air Force Magazine

Air Mobility Command, while it is pushing for delivery of the next generation KC-46 tanker next year, is moving forward on continued upgrades for its KC-135 fleet to keep the aging aircraft flying and is pulling retired aircraft back into the fleet to build up its force structure, AMC Commander Gen. Carlton Everhart said at ASC17.

The KC-46 program still has its “heaviest testing” ahead, he said. While the program has faced several delays, AMC is confident it will get the aircraft next year.

“We will get the airplane in 2018, in my humble opinion,” Everhart said. “We will have a good aircraft, I believe, when we get the product. I don’t really need the aircraft right now, I need the aircraft when it’s ready.”

The most recent setback for the KC-46 was a “Category One” deficiency spotted during testing, when the refueling boom caused scrapes on receiving aircraft. The scrapes were reportedly bad enough that they could damage the stealth coating of aircraft such as the F-22, F-35, and B-2. The Air Force did not detail the number of incidents where this occurred, but Everhart said Tuesday the service is watching the response to the incidents and it is possible the issue, if not fixed, could delay deliveries of the first tankers.

USAF is in the midst of block upgrades for its KC-135 fleet and other modernization, which includes new autopilot systems, glass cockpits, and other updates aimed at keeping the tanker viable until 2040 or so, Everhart said.

The command is also moving to bring more airlifters into its fleet by going to the backup supply. AMC is activating eight C-5Ms that were in backup inventory since sequestration in 2013 and putting them back into the operational fleet, Everhart said Tuesday. The service is also moving 16 C-17s, which were previously in the service’s backup aircraft inventory, to Air National Guard units.

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Re: KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

Post by page_verify » Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:23 am

All that spending means there'll be cuts elsewhere, F-15s and F-16s is the rumour.

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Re: KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

Post by eagle driver » Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:23 am

page_verify wrote:All that spending means there'll be cuts elsewhere, F-15s and F-16s is the rumour.
USAF have said that they plan on making a decision on F-15 and A10 use later this fall . Problem being both types are facing the need for either life extension fixes or upgrades In the case of A-10,s its whether or not to Rewing any more than the 100 that they originally allocated funds for .
And for the F-15C/D its replacing vertical stabilisers and tailerons with each aircraft being quoted at $30.0M each to fix
Which may be just to much money even for the USAF
On top of all this the USAF plan to accelerate F-35 intergration into the ANG the first unit is currently in transition being the Vermont ANG which will become operational next year ,
With the USAF looking to intergrate a second and third units in early to mid 2020-25




A little more info for you on the F-35s intro to ANG units


USAF to soon select two additional F-35A bases

Daniel Wasserbly
IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly

19 September 2017

The Pentagon is shortly to determine the location of a base for an additional Air National Guard unit with new Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighters.

A review is now complete, and its results are being analysed. A basing decision is expected “in the next couple of months,” Air Force General Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters during a 19 September Defense Writers Group breakfast meeting.

USAF officials announced five candidate installations for the next two Air National Guard F-35A locations late in 2016: Dannelly Field Air Guard Station in Montgomery, Alabama; Gowen Field AGS in Boise, Idaho; Jacksonville AGS in Florida; Selfridge ANGB near Detroit; and Truax AGS in Madison, Wisconsin.

The USAF conducted site surveys at each candidate location to assess against “operational requirements, potential impacts to existing missions, infrastructure, and manpower” and subsequently developed cost estimates, the service said.

Burlington AGS in Vermont was previously chosen to host the first Air National Guard F-35A unit – the 158th Fighter Wing. “They’re in the process of converting right now, from [Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcons] to the F-35,” Gen Lengyel said.

The F-35As are expected to commence arrival at the second and third Air National Guard locations in the early to mid-2020s.


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Re: KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

Post by eagle driver » Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:51 am

A bit more on the A-10s problems
Air Force could ground more than 100 A-10s as early as FY18 as life of wings runs out

By: Valerie Insinna
Defense News

September 20, 2017

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Air Force may be forced to ground a portion of its A-10 Warthog squadrons as early as fiscal year 2018, as their wings age out before replacements can be provided, the head of Air Force Materiel Command said Wednesday.

Although the service plans to keep the majority of its A-10 fleet into the foreseeable future, leaders have acknowledged that it will be forced to retire three Warthog squadrons unless it is given money for new wings. Currently, 109 out of 281 A-10s need their wings replaced to extend their lives to 16,000 flight hours.

But even if Congress funds the additional wingsets, the Air Force will not be able to hold a competition, award a contract, and modify its A-10s with new wings before the service life of at least some of the old wings runs out, said Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of Air Force Materiel Command.

“We’re trying to work through to see if we can get to the point where we will not have to ground airplanes waiting to get wings, but as it stands right now, we will have to ground airplanes while we work through getting additional wings,” she said during an exclusive interview with Defense News at the Air Force Association’s annual conference.

As a stopgap measure, AFMC is considering harvesting wings from A-10s mothballed in the boneyard of Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, refurbishing them, and fitting them on Warthogs as their wings age out. But that “gives us a few more hours, not as many as new wings do,” Pawlikowski said, acknowledging that the situation was far from optimal.

Pawlikowski stated that, to her memory, some A-10s could stop flying as early as 2019. However, Air Material Command later clarified that “our current grounding projections are a few aircraft as soon as FY18 with approximately 70 running out of service life over the next several years.”

Even some of the A-10s slated to get new wings could get grounded, as Boeing struggles to deliver wingsets on time due to an issue with a part needing to be reworked, Pawlikowski said.

“What we will do is we will have to manage the fleet in order to provide sufficient jets, particularly for the squadrons that are deploying in support to operations. But aircraft availability will be impacted due to the fact that we will not have sufficient wings to maintain the current aircraft availability,” she said. “So we’ll just have to be sharper with where jets go and how we manage the mission in terms of the deployments to keep the squadrons whole.”

In a statement to Defense News, Boeing acknowledged that it is experiencing difficulties keeping pace with the A-10 wing delivery schedule.

“We have experienced a delay on a composite part built by one of our suppliers that is used to construct the outer wing panels on the A-10 Thunderbolt II,” a Boeing spokeswoman said. “We have assessed the issue and we continue to work closely with the U.S. Air Force and our supplier for a responsive and expedited resolution. To date, Boeing has delivered 159 of 173 A-10 wing sets.”

Defense News broke the news in June that the Air Force could cut as many as three A-10 squadrons unless funding emerged for new wings. Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, said then that the first A-10s could be retired within five years if new wingsets were not procured.

The congressional armed services committees have included a $103 million authorization in their policy bills that would allow the service to restart production of A-10 wings and manufacture four wing sets and that measure was then approved by the House and Senate. However, that legislation does not actually allocate funding and Congress will have to pass a spending bill before the Air Force can move forward with buying new wingsets.

Lawmakers have blocked the service’s attempts to retire the A-10 in the past, including plans in the Air Force’s fiscal year 2017 budget that would incrementally phase out the aircraft starting in FY2018 and a FY2016 proposal to mothball all of its A-10s that year, but Pawlikowski pointed the finger at Congress as one of the key reasons why A-10s may be stuck on the flight line in a matter of years, saying this was the natural consequence of a decade of continuing resolutions and budget instability that left the Air Force unable to make long-term plans.

“Our opportunity to go get moving on that competition to award a new contract to get those additional wings is delayed until we can get an actual appropriation,” she said. “I can’t do that work under a continuing resolution.”


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Re: KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

Post by Sparts99 » Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:13 am

Ref Eagle Drivers post above "And for the F-15C/D its replacing vertical stabilisers and tailerons with each aircraft being quoted at $30.0M each to fix". $30m each?

And surely with new fighter types coming into service but no A-10 replacement - is the f-35 really going to do the A-10's job as well as the A-10 can? - keeping the A-10 going would make more sense?
In this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.

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Re: KC-46 for 2018 service plus AMC upgrades

Post by eagle driver » Sat Sep 23, 2017 7:41 am

A little more info on the KC-46A issues.

Boeing May Replace KC-46 Camera to Fix Scraping Issue

Sep 20, 2017

Lara Seligman
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — Boeing is looking at upgrading the camera systems used for aerial refueling on its new KC-46 tanker after the U.S. Air Force discovered the refueling boom can scrape and potentially damage receiver aircraft.

The remote air refueling observatory cameras in the new Pegasus tanker were the best the market offered in 2012 when the aircraft was being contracted, but is not now the latest technology, Air Force spokesman Col. Christopher Karns told Aviation Week on September 20.

Boeing would assume the cost of upgrading the camera system, Karns said. A Boeing spokeswoman declined to comment.

The problem involves the KC-46’s rigid refueling boom, one of two systems it has to refuel aircraft in flight. As the tanker’s boom goes into the receiver aircraft, the device has a tendency to scrape the surface of the receiving aircraft, explained Gen. Carlton Everhart, commander of Air Mobility Command, on September 20 during the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber conference.

This could pose a particular problem for stealth aircraft such as the B-2, F-22, or F-35 if the boom causes damage to low-observable stealth coating, officials acknowledge. The KC-46 has not yet refueled stealth aircraft during flight testing, Boeing spokeswoman Caroline Hutcheson said.

The KC-46’s other refueling system, the Centerline Drogue System, also has a tendency to leave scuff marks on the tanker itself. The CDS consists of a flexible hose that trails from the tanker aircraft and a drogue fitted to the end of the hose that acts as a funnel to aid insertion of the receiver aircraft probe into the hose. This refueling method is also called probe-and-drogue or hose-and-drogue.

The drogue flies well, but contacts the airframe when being reeled in, leaving “witness marks” on the aircraft’s body, Air Force KC-46 System Program Manager Col. John Newberry says.

“When you retract it and bring it in, it comes up and rubs across the bottom of the aircraft,” Newberry told Aviation Week in a September 19 interview.

Everhart said this is a more minor issue compared with the boom scraping problem. Newberry said the solution could be as simple as requiring closer inspections of that section of the airframe and applying touch-up paint because the Air Force does not want to redesign the drogue system over a few scuff marks.

The boom scraping issue is one of three significant — or “category one” — deficiencies the Air Force-Boeing team is trying to fix on Boeing’s new tanker, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service’s top uniformed acquisition official, said September 20 during the conference.

The KC-46 is also having problems with high-frequency transmission, during which the HF “turns off” when the aircraft goes into aerial refueling mode, Bunch said.

The third issue is “uncommanded boom extension,” he said, which seems to mean the boom unexpectedly extends when it is not supposed to do so. The Air Force did not provide a more detailed explanation by press time.

Boeing’s engineering team and the program office are working hard to fix all three problems, Bunch said.

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