Air Force Slashes ‘Bridge Tanker’ Buy, Sets Deadline for Clean-Sheet Aerial Refueler
Stealthy new tanker jet should arrive in the 2030s, service’s top weapons buyer says.
MARCUS WEISGERBER | MARCH 6, 2023 10:44 PM ET
The U.S. Air Force is shrinking its next planned purchase of tanker aircraft—the ones made to a modified-jetliner design—and getting serious about its stealthy next-gen aerial refueler.
The service will buy only 75 tankers in its upcoming “Bridge Tanker” tranche, Andrew Hunter, the service’s top weapons buyer, announced Monday evening at an Air Force Association conference in Aurora, Colorado. That’s down from the “up to 160” aircraft that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall talked about last year.
Hunter also offered new details on the tanker after that: he said the Next-Generation Aerial Refueling System, or NGAS, needs to be able to fly deeper into contested airspace and have more self-protection and advanced networking than the current KC-135, KC-10, and KC-46 tankers. He said service leaders want NGAS flying before the end of the 2030s.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2023/03/air-force-slashes-bridge-tanker-plan-sets-deadline-clean-sheet-aerial-refueler/383677/
