A required redesign of a component on the refueling boom of the Boeing KC-46A tanker will cost the U.S. Air Force another $55.5 million, the service has announced.
The Air Force agreed to accept deliveries of KC-46 aircraft last January after a two-year impasse on the condition that Boeing correct two technical deficiencies.
The Air Force agreed to pay for redesigning and installing a new telescope actuator for the KC-46 refueling boom, and Boeing agreed to finance the redesign and installation of a complaint remote vision system.
Boeing received the $55.5 million contract on Aug. 2 to complete the critical design review of system-level hardware and software for the telescope actuator redesign.
The original design of the component met the Air Force’s requirements, but those specifications produced too much force for relatively lightweight receiver aircraft, such as the A-10.
As of June, the Air Force expected Boeing to deliver within a few months proposals for redesigning the remote vision system for the KC-46.
Will Roper, the assistant Air Force secretary for acquisition, has described the design of the existing system as fundamentally flawed. In his opinion, Boeing’s three-camera layout, which features two outboard-canted cameras, creates a distorted picture that cannot be resolved by software-enabled image processing. Boeing has disagreed that the outward-canted cameras present an unsolvable design problem.
Discussions between the Air Force and Boeing on the redesign remain ongoing.
The Air Force awarded Boeing a $4.9 billion fixed-price development contract for the KC-46 in February 2011, but delays caused by a series of technical glitches has caused Boeing to spend another $3.5 billion.
Boeing plans to deliver 179 KC-46As through fiscal 2027 to replace the retiring KC-10 fleet and the first tranche of aging KC-135s.