JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COM Photo: Brian Everstine/staMcConnell KC-46 Crews Shaping
the Future of Refueling
By Brian W. Everstine
A KC-46 Pegasus
from McConnell
AFB, Kan., on
the flight line
at the Paris Air
Show June 17. The
appearance was
the new tanker’s
international
debut.LE BOURGET, France—
D
espite extended delays and some continuing
problems, the Air Force’s KC-46 operating base
is now ying a steady stream of rsts and setting
milestones.
e KC-46 made its international debut at the
Paris Air Show in June. To mark the occasion, crews on-
board the trans-Atlantic ight from McConnell AFB, Kan.,
to Ramstein AB, Germany, made let mignon on board. On
the way back, the KC-46 crews will take on space-available
passengers for the rst time in the Pegasus program.
In early June, the 344th Air Refueling Squadron at McCo-
nnell began the initial operational test and evaluation for
the aircraft as the base’s six crews are learning what USAF’s
newest tanker is capable of, Lt. Col. Wesley Spurlock, the
squadron commander, told Air Force Magazine.
During the testing, members of the Air Force Operational
Test and Evaluation Center will monitor ights and oper-
ations, checking through test points to evaluate how the
aircraft performs and how it will operate in the future.
For the crews, this means the ight operations are a “mix
of everything,” including international ights, such as the
recent trip to Paris via Germany and a planned ight to the
Paci c, along with cargo runs, and the rst passenger ights,
Spurlock said. e aircraft has been ying in formations,
practicing tactical maneuvering, and— of course—refueling.
e squadron is making a “really robust ight pro le. ...
We are really ramping up and getting the exposure for our
instructors and aircraft commanders, and really our whole
crew,” Spurlock said. He added, “Our aircraft commanders
are reporting after every single ight what they did, what
they planned to do, lessons learned, issues they’ve had.”
Every time the squadron ies, AFOTEC will “jump on
with us” and go through the test points they need, he said.
e daily ights aren’t dictated by what AFOTEC needs, but
rather, they go along with what aircrews are planning.
“Our mission is the test point. We don’t change our sorties,
per se, to meet the test points, they change test points to meet
our sorties,” Spurlock said.
McConnell’s 344th ARS also is in the process of building up
its rst seven aircrews, with the expectation to reach 24 by the
end of the year. e Reserve 924th Air Refueling Squadron is
planning to get to 10 aircrews.
Because the KC-46 provides more than just refueling—it
has sensors, data link connections, air defenses—the squad-
ron wanted to pick pilots with diverse backgrounds to bring
a di erent mindset to the mission. So far, new KC-46 pilots
have experience ying the F-16, B-1, B-52, E-3, E-8, C-17, and
C-130, along with KC-135s and KC-10s.
e KC-46’s capabilities are “something we’ve never seen on
a tanker,” Spurlock noted. In addition to refueling, the tanker
can help with targeting information and threat assessments.
It’s also designed with countermeasures, a rst on a tanker,
to get the fuel closer to the ght.
“We’re happy to break out of the norm of what the tanker is
for. ... It’s why we have F-16 and B-1 guys that understand the
di erent parts of this, as we put all of this together it becomes
a new thing,” he said.
e initial cadre of pilots went through Boeing training
and got 767-type ratings, but that only scratched the training
surface. “It wasn’t salient to the military-type of ying that we
do. We’ve kind of had to push through that,” Spurlock said.
e 344th is also close to standing up the rst seven boom
operators, and the plan is to reach 12 by the end of the year,
with a nal end state of 30 boom operators. e squadron did
pull experienced KC-10 and KC-135 boom operators to join,
but also looked at other career elds, such as sensor operators,
to nd “as diverse a group as possible,” said SMSgt. Lindsay
Moon, superintendent of the 344th ARS.
rough testing, the aircrews have been able to tell the dif-