The KC-46 Enlisted Team

摘要

The KC-46 Pegasus is an Air Force top modernization priority and receives a high degree of funding and attention from senior service and Pentagon leaders. A small team of experienced enlisted airmen-working from the program office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, since the early days of the program-is also helping keep the tanker on track. They serve as one-of-a-kind subject matter experts and program advisors as the project advances into the flight testing phase. Much hinges on the KC-46, formerly known as the KC-X. Without tankers, USAF's ability to project power with its fighters, bombers, transports, and intelligence aircraft would be severely degraded. The bulk of the tanker fleet comprises KC-135s that, though updated and re-engined over their 55 years, have long outlived their predicted life expectancy and must be replaced with Pegasus tankers as swiftly as possible. Thus, the Air Force has done everything it can to ensure the success of the KC-46. One of those precautionary measures was to add the enlisted maintainer's perspective to the acquisition process.