Tests Planned For KC-135s That Can Fly Themselves, Act As Drone Motherships
Pilot-optional KC-135 flights and giving them drone launching abilities are on the horizon as the USAF eyes next-generation tankers.
BY
JOSEPH TREVITHICK
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PUBLISHED FEB 16, 2024 12:17 PM EST
The US Air Force will test new autonomous capabilities for its KC-135s intended, at least initially, to help reduce operator workload. The service is also still planning to conduct a test of the KC-135 as an aerial launching platform for drones.
The U.S. Air Force is set to test new autonomous capabilities for its KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet that could help reduce crew workload and improve their effectiveness, and maybe even eliminate the need for them altogether in the future. The service is also still looking to demonstrate a KC-135 configured as an aerial launch platform for drones, maybe as early as this summer.
Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command (AMC), shared new details about when the future might hold for the venerable KC-135 at a media roundable that The War Zone and other outlets attended on the sidelines of this year's Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium on Wednesday. Autonomous flight technology company Merlin is supporting the KC-135 autonomy project and provided additional information to us directly, as well as in a press release.
New Autonomous Capabilities For The KC-135
Merlin is "working on ... the ability to take existing airframes [and] put autonomy in them," AMC head Gen. Minihan explained on Wednesday. "Then we can look at what what crews can do and what [the autonomy system] ... can [do to] take the load off of the human."
https://www.twz.com/air/tests-planned-for-kc-135s-that-can-fly-itself-act-as-drone-mothership
