JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COMPhoto: MSgt. Joshua Almaraasference between the KC-46 and legacy airplanes. For example,
the KC-46 is more stable during refueling than the KC-135.
When attached to a large aircraft such as the C-17, the Strato-
tanker would get “pushed around,” Moon said. In the KC-46,
the aircrews can’t tell the di erence as much between heavy
receivers and smaller ghters.
For the pilots, the aircraft is simply more modern than KC-
135s and KC-10s. It’s a fully electronic “glass” cockpit with
automatic landing and automatic braking. “ ere’s a lot of
bells and whistles, it’s very user friendly ... It’s designed to be
a modern airplane,” Spurlock said.
For the boom operators, the nature of the KC-46’s system
is simply more comfortable. In the KC-135, operators lay on
their stomachs for extended periods of time looking out the
window to the receiver, Moon said. It got to the point where
long-term operators would experience back pain and other
physiological issues. A McConnell boom operator in 2018 won
the Air Force’s Spark Tank competition for inventing a platform
for the KC-135 station to help alleviate pain.
In the KC-46, the operator is sitting upright, looking at
large screens to operate the boom. “It is bearable to sustain
operations as long as possible, being comfortable, and doing
it while not feeling fatigued,” Moon said.
e remote vision system has a heads-up display built-in to
give the operators live readings of data such as the amount of
fuel left to be o -loaded, which is a “big situational awareness
tool,” Moon said.
ere are large, bright LED lights on the boom itself, visible
day and night, that makes receiving easier, said Spurlock, who
has own as a pilot on both the receiving and o -loading end.
“It’s kind of like a fth-generation tanker,” he said. “It’s going
to be a big deal.”
Getting to this point has meant long delays for crews at
McConnell as they waited for the aircraft to arrive. e base
hosted a ribbon cutting for a maintenance hangar in October
2017, more than 14 months before the aircraft actually arrived.
McConnell now has six aircraft, and it’s waiting on the seventh
to arrive, which was tentatively scheduled for the end of June.
e Air Force and Boeing are working together on determin-
ing a schedule for the already delivered aircraft to return to the
company for an in-depth sweep for foreign object debris, such
as tools from the factory that fell into areas of the jet during
production. e aircraft that have been delivered have been
deemed safe to y, but still have remaining areas that need to
be checked. ese sweeps are expected to be nished in July.
At McConnell, maintenance crews are working through this
issue and “when it happens, it happens, and we work around
it,” Spurlock said.
“At the end of the day, we’re just ying what we have. We
step out to the jet and, whatever the tail number is, we y it,”
Spurlock said. While he did not discuss speci c mission capa-
bility rates, he said, “Every time I’ve stepped to y, I’ve own.”
Additionally, the Air Force and Boeing are working through
three “category one” de ciencies—two focused on the RVS
and one on the boom itself—with a x not expected to be
implemented for three to four years.
ese ights and the ongoing IOT&E process give McConnell
a unique mission. e KC-135 was rst delivered in the 1950s,
and KC-10s in the early 1980s. e airmen who ew, main-
tained, and operated the refueling booms at the time formed
the processes and tactics that largely have stuck around for
decades. is same process is now beginning with the 344th.
“We have a unique opportunity to leave our mark on the Air
Force in the future,” Spurlock said. J
Holmes: USAF Can’t Get
Complacent with Readiness Gains
By Rachel S. CohenDAYTON, Ohio—A
ir Force readiness improved by about 15 percent
over the past year, but Air Combat Command’s
chief says the service must revamp its approach to
managing aircraft and other weapon systems in less
predictable, more complex combat environments.
“We need to y the 16 sorties a month per airplane on Air
Combat Command ghters,” Gen. James M. Holmes said June
19 at the Air Force Life Cycle Industry Days conference. “We
need to train the equivalent ways of that on our other systems,
not just to check a box, and not just so I can write an update
to my boss to tell them we made it. ... e country is safe
because of their training, so readiness is not just a number.”
Last year, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ordered the
services to ramp up mission capable rates for F-35, F-22,
F-16, and F/A-18 ghters to at least 80 percent by Sept. 30,- Air Force leaders testi ed in March that more than 90
percent of the service’s 204 “pacing” squadrons—the rst
group of unnamed aircraft that could be sent into a ght with
an advanced adversary—were ready to deploy if needed.
“When we include their follow-on forces, these pacing
squadrons are on track to reach 80 percent readiness before
the end of scal year 2020, six years faster than originally
projected,” according to the prepared testimony. “As our
front-line squadrons meet their readiness goals, we will also
ensure the remainder of our operational squadrons reach the
80 percent readiness mark by 2022, as we continue to build
toward the 386 operational squadrons we require.”
Focused on those pacing units, the Air Force has been
able to boost its ability to respond to con ict because of its
current size and because it has settled into a familiar rhythm
with the enduring wars of the last two decades, Holmes said.
is process works in today’s “peacetime” stance, with
demands limited to keeping ISIS and other terror groups at
bay. But were the US to go to war with China or Russia—or
some other peer adversary—the Pentagon wouldn’t be able
to rely on its typical supply chain and maintenance structure,
which depends on centralized bases. Growing the service by
24 percent to 386 operational squadrons as envisioned could
further stress resources, he suggested.
“ e Life Cycle Management Center has worked to squeeze
the fat out and to focus on the things that are required to meet
those daily requirements in a very predictable set of con icts
that are based on sending rotational units over periodically,”
Holmes said. “Great power competition will be demanding
Gen. James
Holmes during
a question-
and-answer
session with
airmen at
Gowen Field
near Boise,
Idaho.