The U.S. Air Force now expects the long-awaited updated vision system for the troubled KC-46 Pegasus tanker to be ready in “early 2028,” as part of a broader agreement with Boeing aimed at boosting fleet readiness.
Three-track strategy: Test assets, spare parts and performance-based logistics
In a statement released Tuesday, the Air Force outlined a three-pronged plan with Boeing to overhaul the Pegasus fleet.
First, five earlier-production aircraft will be “repurposed” into “dedicated test assets,” a move that will free up “high-value spare parts” for operational jets.
Second, the service will launch a “temporary, performance-based logistics agreement” for the tanker’s aerial-refueling subsystem and other critical components, which it described as “the largest detractors of KC-46 availability.”
Taken together, those initiatives and new investments proposed in the fiscal 2027 budget request are expected to increase “near-term aircraft availability” by about six percent, rising to roughly 20 percent by 2030, the Air Force said.
Availability questions linger: “We need more information for sure”
The Air Force did not respond by press time to questions about the Pegasus’s current availability rate. A trade publication reported last year that the aircraft’s mission-capable rate stood at 61 percent in fiscal 2024, down from 65 percent in FY23.
The third element of the strategy is to accelerate retrofits of the jet’s vision system, a long-running effort to fix significant shortcomings. By “bundling” the new vision system installation with depot maintenance, the Air Force says it will cut the fleet-wide retrofit timeline from 13 years to seven.
RVS 2.0 slips again: from 2023 to early 2028
The latest plan also appears to reveal another schedule slip for the upgraded vision system, known as RVS 2.0. While the Air Force last year expected it to be operational by summer 2027, Tuesday’s release now says RVS 2.0 is “scheduled to begin fielding in early 2028.”
Previously, officials had suggested the new system would be ready as early as 2023. More recent delays have been attributed to the Federal Aviation Administration’s certification process.
The KC-46 is the Air Force’s newest tanker, intended primarily to recapitalize the aging KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. The aircraft has also been selected by Israel and Japan.
Price spike: KC-46 unit cost projected to hit $334 million
The new agreement arrives as the tanker’s projected price tag is set to jump by roughly $100 million per aircraft, a development that drew sharp scrutiny from lawmakers during a Senate hearing this week.
Despite persistent technical issues, the Air Force is seeking to buy up to 75 additional KC-46s under a production extension program and wants to increase the annual buy from 15 to 18 aircraft.
Fiscal 2027 budget documents, however, point to a much steeper bill: out-year projections list a gross unit price of approximately $334 million for jets purchased in FY28, up from $235 million in FY27. The Air Force has said it will not proceed with a new production contract until the tanker’s remaining top problems, known as category 1 deficiencies, are fixed.
“The cheapest tankers we were ever going to buy”: why the price is jumping
At a Senate Armed Services Airland subcommittee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., pressed Air Force officials on why the cost is climbing for “the same capability being delivered in 2027.”
Responding, Air Force Lt. Gen. David Tabor argued that the aircraft now in production may be “the cheapest tankers that we were ever going to buy.”
“In fact, I think Boeing took those at a loss, and they would tell you that same thing — that if they were selling them at what they needed to, it would be significantly higher,” Tabor said.
Boeing signed a fixed-price development contract for the Pegasus along with fixed-price production options, leading to cumulative losses of more than $7 billion. The company most recently booked an additional $565 million charge in January.
“So you’re getting a bit of an artificial bump, albeit a large one, regardless,” added Tabor, who serves as the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs. “That’s part of this extended production that we’re looking at right now,” he said, noting that negotiations are “ongoing” and aimed at keeping the eventual price “as competitive as possible.”
