The United States Air Force (USAF) is reconsidering its interim tanker acquisition as it seeks to expedite the development of a next-generation airframe. This would mean continuing to operate more KC-135 Stratotankers than planned, depending on the progress of its Next Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS) concept.
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Video: The KC-45 (A330 MRTT) – How Boeing Won A Contract First Given To Airbus
- Guest authors
- January 8, 2025
- 0
February 29th, 2008. It was the day that Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that it had been selected by the U.S. Air Force to provide the KC-45A aerial refueling tanker for the KC-135 tanker replacement program. Most notably, this jet would be based on the A330 commercial airframe, produced by EADS – which, these days, would be Airbus’ Defence and Space division.Unfortunately, the celebrations wouldn’t last long for Airbus and Northrop Grumman.Just days later, Boeing would launch a full-scale counteroffensive to convince the Air Force that it had selected the wrong aircraft. In the end, Boeing was successful in overturning the Northrop Grumman deal, having its 767-based tanker win instead. It’s been quite awhile since this whole ordeal took place – long before our website and YouTube channels existed. So we thought it would be interesting to take a look back for today’s video!