Boeing is now testing the brand new Distant Imaginative and prescient System 2.0 for the KC-46A’s troubled telescoping increase system, which addresses critical Class 1 deficiencies.
The Division of the Air Power introduced on Nov. 19, 2025 that McGhee Tyson ANGB (Air Nationwide Guard Base), Tennessee, has been chosen as the popular location for the Foremost Working Base (MOB) 7 of the KC-46A Pegasus fleet. The 134th Air Refueling Wing based mostly there’ll obtain eight new tankers, with the primary supply in 2031 following a ultimate basing determination anticipated in 2027.
The event comes as producer Boeing works in direction of resolving a number of technical points on the Pegasus. The main snag is the Distant Imaginative and prescient System (RVS) of the refueling increase, with visibility and depth notion dealing with points, and a number of different Class 1 deficiencies with the general airframe.
Boeing Protection chief Steven Parker just lately stated, on the sidelines of the Dubai Air Present, that the corporate has begun flight exams with an improved RVS 2.0 at its Seattle facility. Breaking Protection reported that Boeing has been delivering Pegasus refuelers with what the Air Power dubs RVS 1.5, a touch improved system over the RVS 1.0 model.
Pumped for a flyaway Friday. ✈️⛽️
Right now’s #KC46 supply marks the 18th Pegasus tanker for @Travis60AMW. With gas, cargo and knowledge for the mission, the KC-46A supplies extra functionality and capability to service members across the globe. pic.twitter.com/5Ii8NdNFiB
— Boeing Protection (@BoeingDefense) November 14, 2025
KC-46A Pegasus tankers at McGhee Tyson ANGB
In response to the press releases by the 134th ARW and the Nationwide Guard, ought to the ultimate determination affirm the situation, McGhee Tyson ANGB will obtain its first KC-46 in 2031 and begin changing all its KC-135 Stratotankers. The ultimate basing determination, nevertheless, is conditional on an environmental affect evaluation which is predicted by 2027.
The Air Power already named in September 2024 McGhee Tyson ANGB among the many seven ANG candidate places for potential basing of the KC-46.If McGhee Tyson ANGB is in the end chosen, the 134th ARW would turn into the third ANG unit to function the KC-46A, after the 157th ARW at Pease ANGB, New Hampshire, and the 117th ARW at Sumpter Smith Joint Nationwide Guard Base, Alabama.
The 134th ARW has additionally constructed a brand new $134 million 10,000-foot runway and a $32.4 million upkeep hangar for the KC-46 plane, in line with the Nationwide Guard launch.
US Air Power KC-135 Stratotankers preform an elephant stroll and minimal interval takeoffs throughout 134th Air Refueling Wing’s operational readiness train at McGhee Tyson Air Nationwide Guard Base, Tennessee, April 2. pic.twitter.com/Pk35X5ZYis
— Ryan Chan 陳家翹 (@ryankakiuchan) April 4, 2023
There are nicely over 81 KC-46A Pegasus tankers in service with the U.S. Air Power, after Boeing reported that determine on Feb. 8, 2024 following the supply of the nineteenth KC-46 to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. On Oct. 4 and Nov. 15, 2025, Boeing reported the supply of the seventeenth and 18th Pegasus tankers to Travis AFB, California.
Distant Imaginative and prescient System points
The RVS 2.0 has been delayed, slipping from an unique supply timeline of 2023, and is now lastly anticipated in 2027. A number one problem with the RVS is its camera-enabled visible dealing with configuration, changing a system on legacy tankers the place increase operators peer out a window to information telescopic refueling rods to receptacles on plane.
The remotely operated telescoping increase and camera-enabled system struggles with dynamic lighting, complicating nighttime refuelings, whereas daytime refueling may be “washed out by daylight,” Breaking Protection reported.
NEWS: 418th FLTS at Edwards executes historic trilateral check with @AusAirForce @RoyalAirForce. #RAAF E-7A now suitable with @usairforce KC-46, future check groups achieve early data forward of anticipated E-7 fielding.
Extra- @AFLCMCofficial pic.twitter.com/sMasEilJdB
— Edwards Air Power Base (@EdwardsAFB) April 28, 2025
Depth notion points with the digital camera feed on the display screen might trigger a increase operator to probably strike an plane, and these points have thus been categorized as Class 1 deficiencies. RVS 2.0 has two new long-wave infrared and two seen spectrum cameras, together with a pair of seen spectrum cameras, for a complete of six lenses.
“We had the primary flight with the brand new distant visible system. In order that’s an enormous milestone for the programme,” Parker instructed reporters, in line with Aerospace International Information. Boeing agreed to the Air Power’s demand in April 2020 to revamp your complete RVS and introduce the RVS 2.0 at no extra value to the federal government.
Nevertheless, a collection of technical, important design critiques and certification for industrial off-the-shelf digital camera {hardware} stored pushing the RVS 2.0 supply past 2026. A service-wide retrofit is now anticipated in 2027, when RVS 2.0 is licensed and permitted for supply.
AGN additional quoted Parker who acknowledged the problems and delays with the RVS: “And so we’ll go into testing now in 2026 and do contact testing ultimately right here as nicely.” Boeing executives additionally reiterated in Dubai that the interim RVS 1.5 is performing “exceptionally.”
Different KC-46A Pegasus issues
The KC-46A Pegasus program has been beset by a collection of technical and design points, a few of which too are categorized as “Class 1.” These deficiencies are people who endanger each the plane and the crew.
March 2025 noticed the USAF pausing extra deliveries of the tanker and a fleet-wide inspection of its 89 plane after cracks have been found within the outboard fixed-trailing-edge assist construction of two planes. These plane have been set to be handed over to the service from the manufacturing unit when the difficulty was found.
One other downside, particularly with an actuator contained in the increase, prevents the A-10C to be refueled. In actual fact, the A-10 can’t generate sufficient drive to remain related to the increase because of its low velocity, so the hydraulic actuator supplies that drive to maintain the increase rod within the receptacle. A brand new actuator is predicted by 2026 to unravel the issue.
Improperly positioned couplings within the gas traces and a difficulty with the AAR receptacle on prime of the cockpit additionally risked gas leaks contained in the plane and the cockpit.
