The Air Force Research Laboratory evaluated the Speed Agile air refueling concept in the late 2000s.
CLEVELAND—Air Mobility Command (AMC) plans to complete a year-long analysis later this year in the hopes of resolving several fundamental questions about the U.S. Air Force’s next tanker, a top official said April 23.
The size, shape, quantity and role of the Next Generation Air Refueling System (NGAS) will be reviewed during the analysis of alternatives, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, who is deputy chief of staff for plans and programs.
The Air Force also has not settled on the financing plan to pay for developing and buying the NGAS fleet, Moore told the annual symposium of the Aerial Refueling Systems Advisory Group.
“There . . . will likely have to be some commitment beyond the Air Force to get the kind of development money and procurement [funding] that it takes to actually make that payment,” Moore said. “But until we know what the options are, we don’t even have an idea what that looks like.”
It was not immediately clear what other sources of funding the Air Force could tap for the NGAS program. But the service could request contributions from the U.S. Navy, whose aircraft likely would use the NGAS fleet to meet inflight refueling needs.
The Air Force requested $7.928 million in the fiscal 2024 budget to launch the analysis of NGAS program alternatives. But the follow-up fiscal 2025 request added no additional funding through fiscal 2029.
A request for information published by AMC in January 2023 calls for launching development of NGAS in the 2030s and achieving initial operational capability in 2040. The program was formerly known as KC-Z and is the last of three tranches of aircraft to replace the Boeing KC-135 and KC-10 fleets. The Air Force is in the process of ordering 183 Boeing KC-46s through fiscal 2027, with another contract for 70-140 aircraft planned to keep production continuing in the early 2030s.
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