Air Force pauses deliveries of Boeing’s KC-46 tanker
The decision to pause deliveries was made on Feb. 27 by the service’s KC-46A program office “due to the identification of in the ‘outboard fixed-trailing-edge support structure’” of the two planes, an Air Force spokesperson said.
A KC-46A Pegasus arrives at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., Dec. 21, 2021. (US Air Force photo)
AFA WARFARE 2025 — The Air Force has instructed Boeing to halt deliveries of the KC-46 tanker after cracks were found on two production aircraft awaiting their handoff to the Air Force.
The decision to pause deliveries was made on Feb. 27 by the service’s KC-46A program office “due to the identification of in the ‘outboard fixed-trailing-edge support structure’” of the two planes, an Air Force spokesperson said.
“The damage does not pose a safety-of-flight concern; however, identified cracks must be repaired before returning an aircraft to service,” The spokesperson said. “Boeing, the Program Office, and Air Mobility Command are working to quickly identify the root cause and develop both a near and long-term way ahead.”
A source with knowledge of the program told Breaking Defense that the issue revolves around cracks found on the aileron hinges of two aircraft yet to be delivered to the Air Force. The service and Boeing have been aware since 2018 that the KC-46 — like its parent aircraft, the commercial 767 — could develop cracks to the aileron hinges over time, but the discovery of cracking on brand new aircraft led the service to stop deliveries.
“We are working closely with the customer to assess a potential issue on KC-46 aircraft and to mitigate any potential impact to the fleet and in-production airplanes,” a Boeing spokesperson said in a statement.
The War Zone was first to report news of the pause.
The KC-46 has experienced numerous technical issues and schedule delays during its development and fielding, chiefly the redesign of the aircraft’s Remote Vision System — a collection of sensors that allow the boom operator to refuel a receiver airplane without visually looking out a window — which is expected to be fielded in 2026.
Those issues and others have resulted in billions of dollars in cost overruns for Boeing, which is locked into a fixed-price contract that holds it responsible for paying costs above a certain threshold. Losses on the KC-46 amounted to $2 billion in 2024, Boeing stated in regulatory filings released in January.
The Air Force last paused KC-46A deliveries for a two month period beginning in March 2024, which occurred so that the service could inspect production and fielded aircraft for a broken component on the aircraft’s boom.
The service recorded a new “category 1” technical deficiency for the program a couple months later after discovering that vibrations from a fuel pump that were damaging bleed air ducts, Air Force officials told reporters in July.
