Air Force hedges on next-gen tanker plans
Plans for USAF future aircraft programs look too pricey, service secretary says.
Audrey Decker | November 4, 2024
Tomorrow’s tankers might just be today’s tankers with self-protection gear, Air Force officials say—because the service can’t afford to pursue all its next-generation plans.
The Air Force has been devising plans to develop a future tanker called the Next Generation Air Refueling System, or NGAS, to use in contested operations in the Indo-Pacific, as China develops new counter-air systems that can threaten tankers at longer ranges.
But building a new tanker from scratch doesn’t look possible any time soon, so the service might resort to simply enhancing its current fleet of tankers, said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
“Unfortunately, any new design cannot be fielded for several years at best, even if affordable. Other options include various ways of increasing the resilience of the current force. The need for improved connectivity and some degree of enhanced self-protection measure appears to be attractive from both an affordability and cost-effectiveness perspective. It’s also something that can be accomplished in relatively short time frames at relatively low cost,” Kendall said Friday at the service’s annual Airlift/Tanker Association Symposium.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2024/11/air-force-hedges-next-gen-tanker-plans/400805/?oref=d1-homepage-river
