The US Air Force faces a serious problem with its fleets of aerial refuelling aircraft. No air arm on the planet has more tankers than the USAF, and few fly types that are so important to the overall mission, yet are of 1950s vintage. America needs a lot of tankers to support its combat jets and those of its allies, but the cost of recapitalising them is off the chart. USAF requirements as far back as 2014 projected a demand for nearly 500 serviceable and mission-ready tankers to meet global demand. An initial buy of 767-based Boeing KC-46A Pegasus tankers should have eased the problem, but even a sizeable initial order for 179 brand new examples was still viewed essentially as a sticking plaster for the overall problem. What's worse is that this tanker band-aid has turned into something of a nightmare. A tanker force that is mandated to expand in overall mass and increase its number of squadrons now sees a formal delay to a full-rate production decision until 2024 for its new KC-46, when issues with its problematic Remote Vision System (RVS) should be fully corrected, and initial operational test and evaluation can be satisfactorily completed.
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