A week before the US Air Force’s KC-135 Stratotanker crashed in western Iraq on March 12 during Operation Epic Fury, killing all six crew members on board, a senior USAF officer issued a dire warning.
The USAF will not order new refuelling tankers, Boeing’s KC-46 Pegasus, until Boeing fixes ongoing problems with the tanker, which is set to replace the legacy KC-135 Stratotanker.
This effectively means that the USAF will be forced to maintain its legacy KC-135 Stratotanker fleet, in service since the 1950s, longer than previously planned.
Given that the KC-135 is the mainstay of the USAF’s tanker fleet, the service will be forced to deploy them on critical missions, including wartime, despite mounting maintenance issues and accidents.
The USAF maintains a fleet of over 370 KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, of which more than 150 remain in active service.
Notably, its replacement aircraft, Boeing’s KC-46 Pegasus, has faced repeated delivery delays due to multiple technical issues and significant cost overruns.
No More Orders
On March 4, the U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. John Lamontagne, told lawmakers that Boeing must fix ongoing problems with its KC-46 aerial refueling tanker before the United States orders more.
The general, however, did not specify which problems could hold up a follow-on contract to the existing one for 183 tankers.
In 2011, the USAF ordered 179 KC-46As, based on Boeing’s commercial 767, to partially replace the aging KC-135 fleet.
The order was subsequently increased to 188 KC-46As, the maximum number allowed under the original 2011 deal structure.
As of late 2025, nearly 102 KC-46s have been delivered to the USAF. This leaves roughly 80–88 remaining under the contract.
Last November, the US Air Force committed to the next block of 15 tankers in the existing contract.
In July 2025, the USAF approved a “Tanker Production Extension” program to procure up to 75 additional KC-46As beyond the baseline, bringing the potential total USAF fleet to 263 (188 baseline + 75 extension).
This supports gradual KC-135 retirements while bridging to future next-generation tanker concepts like the NGAS.
It is this follow-up “Tanker Production Extension” program that is under threat due to ongoing technical issues.
“We are working through a couple of issues with the contractor, and we are not going to get a new contract for another 75 KC-46s until we work through some of those deficiencies,” Lamontagne told a subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
According to reports, the follow-on order for KC-46As is at least two years away, but could be further delayed if Boeing is unable to fix the ongoing technical issues with the troubled aircraft.
Boeing and the Air Force have already spent years trying to fix problems with the KC-46’s refueling boom and the visual system the boom operator uses to monitor and move it during refueling. Last year, deliveries were temporarily paused after cracks were found in a handful of new tankers, Reuters reported.
The general, however, expressed confidence that Boeing will fix the issues in time.
I am “confident that a good plan is in place” to resolve the issues next year, Lamontagne said.
However, even the existing KC-46A contract for 188 deliveries has been suffering from repeated delays.
The USAF intended to procure 179 tankers by 2027.
However, the program faced significant delays due to multiple issues, including development issues, testing delays, deficiencies in its boom actuator, persistent visibility issues with the Remote Vision System, and fuel system leaks.
Last year, the company had to halt deliveries for three months due to cracks in the aircraft’s wings, pushing actual deliveries far behind the initial timeline.
Boeing has, however, ramped up production in recent years.
It delivered 14 KC-46A tankers last year, and the company is targeting to deliver a record 19 aircraft this year.
The Boeing KC-46 is also struggling with significant cost overruns.
Earlier this January, Boeing announced a new US$565 million charge related to its contract for the KC-46A Pegasus tanker, its first loss on the program since 2024.
In a January 27 earnings call, company leaders said the charge is due to cost growth on the 767 airliner, which is the basis for the tanker, as well as an increase in engineering support to improve efficiency and quality on the KC-46 production line.
Boeing has now lost more than US$7 billion on the fixed-price contract for the KC-46, which CEO Kelly Ortberg acknowledged has been a “bad contract for the last decade.”
“While it’s disappointing to recognize another impact on this program, we are seeing encouraging operational performance trends which, if sustained, should enable us to meet our customer delivery commitment and set us up well for the next tanker order beyond the current program of record,” Ortberg said.
“You’re never done until you’re done on any of the development programs.”
The timeline delay and cost overruns are further straining the legacy KC-135 fleet, which has been in service for nearly seven decades.
Notably, the KC-46A is one of nine military fixed-wing aircraft (six American, three Russian) with over 60 years of continuous service. These include the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber (1955), Lockheed C-130 Hercules cargo and troop transporter (1956), Tupolev Tu-95 bomber (1956), and Lockheed U-2 “Dragon Lady” (1957).
The USAF has used three of these aircraft: the KC-135 Stratotanker, Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, and the Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft in the ongoing Operation Epic Fury against Iran.
While commenting on the price overruns on the existing baseline contract for the KC-46A, Boeing CEO Ortberg said, “This has been a bad contract for the last decade, this existing contract.”
“As we enter into a new opportunity where we get to reprice, we want to make sure that we underwrite that contract to ensure it’s a fair contract and we can make money on that.”
However, the warning by the U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. John Lamontagne, has made it clear that the USAF will not sign a new contract until Boeing fixes the ongoing technical issues with the tanker aircraft.
In effect, this means that the USAF will have to fly the KC-135 fleet longer than planned.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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