{"id":1417560,"date":"2022-04-04T08:29:41","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T12:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417560"},"modified":"2022-04-04T08:29:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T12:29:54","slug":"u-s-kc-46-tankers-operating-on-natos-eastern-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-kc-46-tankers-operating-on-natos-eastern-front\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. KC-46 Tankers Operating on NATO\u2019s Eastern Front"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-kc-46-tankers-operating-on-natos-eastern-front%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1417560&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_214059\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-214059\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A KC-46A Pegasus tanker takes off March 17, 2022, from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas,\u00a0 for Moron Air Base, Spain. (US Air Force photo by Amn. William Lunn)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Edited on 4\/2\/2022 at 2:54 pm EST after a spokesperson for AMC clarified that US Air Forces in Europe is tasking the KC-46, and not TRANSCOM as originally reported.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON: For the past week, the <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/boeing\/\">Boeing<\/a> KC-46 has been conducting refueling missions in Europe, providing fuel over Germany and Poland to US fighters and bombers bolstering NATO\u2019s eastern front, even though the beleaguered tanker isn\u2019t yet considered operational.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/04\/exclusive-even-with-ukraine-operations-ongoing-air-mobility-commander-focused-on-china\/\">Air Mobility Command head Gen. Mike Minihan<\/a> on March 10 approved the deployment of four <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/kc-46a\/\">KC-46s<\/a> and 220 airmen to Moron Air Base in Spain, AMC spokesman Capt. Chris Herbert confirmed in a statement to Breaking Defense.<\/p>\n<p>Because the KC-46 has not been declared operational, this \u201cemployment concept exercise\u201d is designed to put the aircraft through its paces, ensuring it will be ready for fielding in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAircraft and personnel will remain under AMC authorities as they validate desired learning objectives,\u201d Herbert said. However, \u201cthey will support real-world, theater operational missions as required.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>AMC spokesman Col. Damien Pickart further clarified that the KC-46 has already been tasked by US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) to do operational refueling missions over Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Pickart noted the tanker is restricted from refueling NATO and certain US aircraft, such as the A-10 Warthog. However, it is now cleared to pass fuel to more than 85% of US aircraft types \u2014 most recently the stealthy F-35 and F-22, as announced by TRANSCOM commander Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Although Air Mobility Command declined to provide details of the types of missions the KC-46 has been performing, aircraft spotters using open source flight tracking software have uncovered examples.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/02\/a-prototype-spy-plane-is-tracking-russian-force-movements-for-the-us-army\/\"><em><strong>RELATED: A prototype spy plane is tracking Russian force movements for the US Army<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rick Francona, a former US Air Force intelligence officer who has tracked military aircraft flights over Europe, appears to be the first to have spotted the KC-46 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiddleEastGuy\/status\/1502909510087688196?s=20&#038;t=GPFzFREjT5SJK1wLRMscVw\">as it made its way to Europe<\/a> on March 13, and again on March 28, when he tweeted a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MiddleEastGuy\/status\/1508445568325935105?s=20&#038;t=GPFzFREjT5SJK1wLRMscVw\">map of tanker activity<\/a> that showed the KC-46 apparently on its first operational refueling mission over Europe.<\/p>\n<p>A day later, Francona tweeted open-source flight information showing a KC-46 with the callsign PICO40 as it refueled a B-52 bomber over Germany.<\/p>\n<p>By that point, several other plane spotters had caught on to the new tanker\u2019s flight activity. On March 30, one spotter tweeted the flight routes of two KC-46s \u2014 callsigned PICO60 and PICO61 \u2014 as they circled over Poland.<\/p>\n<p>The KC-46s and airmen participating in the employment exercise came from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing and 931st Air Refueling Wing from McConnell AFB, Kan., the 157th Air Refueling Wing at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H., and the 916th Air Refueling Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the KC-46A now approved to conduct most of its missions, this exercise offers another step to move towards full operational capability,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cIt will also provide additional refueling capacity and free up KC-135 and KC-10 aircraft for other operational taskings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The KC-46s were not requested by US European Command or USAFE, Pickart added.<\/p>\n<p>The KC-46\u2019s operation in Europe is a sign of confidence in a tanker that has had a rough development period beset with numerous cost overruns and lengthy schedule delays.<\/p>\n<p>The program has racked up <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/01\/boeing-racks-up-402m-cost-overrun-on-kc-46-tanker\/\">a total of $5.4 billion<\/a> in pre-tax charges over the course of its development \u2014 more than the $4.9 billion contract that Boeing won to develop the KC-46 in 2011. Due to the terms of the fixed-price contract, Boeing is locked into paying for any cost overruns.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the program continues to work through numerous critical deficiencies, including problems with the Remote Vision System that provides video and infrared imagery of a receiver aircraft\u00a0 to the boom operator during a refueling.<\/p>\n<p>Air Force leaders have stressed that the KC-46 won\u2019t be declared fully operational until these issues are resolved, which won\u2019t be until 2023 at earliest. However, the service has<a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2021\/08\/kc-46-baby-steps-to-wider-availability-for-operators\/\"> slowly ramped up<\/a> operational use of the tanker as it proves itself in testing and exercises.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince January 2019, the KC-46A has routinely conducted missions in the US as well as overseas in the Pacific, Middle East and Europe,\u201d Herbert said. \u201cThis latest employment of the KC-46A to Europe represents yet another step in the aircraft moving towards full operational capability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A KC-46A Pegasus tanker takes off March 17, 2022, from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas,\u00a0 for Moron Air Base, Spain. (US Air Force photo by Amn. William Lunn) Edited on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1417560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}