MIflyer
1st Lieutenant
From Air Force Magazine. Sometimes it seems that a hole with some Plexiglas over it is the best solution after all....
"Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told Senate legislators March 3 the service would not use the new KC-46 tanker unless absolutely necessary to fight a powerful adversary.
The wide-ranging Senate Armed Services hearing—the first of multiple chances the Air Force has this week to argue for its $169 billion budget request—continually circled back to the Pegasus tanker's most pressing issue: its subpar remote vision system, built by Rockwell Collins. RVS is supposed to let Airmen see where the plane's refueling boom is in relation to an aircraft it is trying to gas up. But at around 10 feet from the receiver aircraft, the RVS doesn't focus well enough to connect, sometimes causing the operator to hit the nearby plane.
"We are meeting every day on that topic," Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said. "It is really one of the highest priorities in the building."
She reiterated the Air Force's intent to find a solution to the RVS problem by the end of March.
Boeing's new Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun "committed to me that the KC-46 was his top military priority and he was going to do what was required to fix it," Goldfein said. "I have seen a change in the behavior of that company since he took over. That's why we're more confident sitting here today that we have a serious fix on the table."
KC-46 is slated to be ready for operations in 2023 or 2024. But Goldfein still isn't comfortable enough with the tanker to let it fly regular missions. Instead, the Air Force will only send it into battle with highly trained crews if absolutely necessary. Without an RVS fix in place, Airmen would not only deal with blurry vision but also issues like a blinding glare off of the receiver airplane on clear, sunny days."
"Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told Senate legislators March 3 the service would not use the new KC-46 tanker unless absolutely necessary to fight a powerful adversary.
The wide-ranging Senate Armed Services hearing—the first of multiple chances the Air Force has this week to argue for its $169 billion budget request—continually circled back to the Pegasus tanker's most pressing issue: its subpar remote vision system, built by Rockwell Collins. RVS is supposed to let Airmen see where the plane's refueling boom is in relation to an aircraft it is trying to gas up. But at around 10 feet from the receiver aircraft, the RVS doesn't focus well enough to connect, sometimes causing the operator to hit the nearby plane.
"We are meeting every day on that topic," Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett said. "It is really one of the highest priorities in the building."
She reiterated the Air Force's intent to find a solution to the RVS problem by the end of March.
Boeing's new Chief Executive Officer David Calhoun "committed to me that the KC-46 was his top military priority and he was going to do what was required to fix it," Goldfein said. "I have seen a change in the behavior of that company since he took over. That's why we're more confident sitting here today that we have a serious fix on the table."
KC-46 is slated to be ready for operations in 2023 or 2024. But Goldfein still isn't comfortable enough with the tanker to let it fly regular missions. Instead, the Air Force will only send it into battle with highly trained crews if absolutely necessary. Without an RVS fix in place, Airmen would not only deal with blurry vision but also issues like a blinding glare off of the receiver airplane on clear, sunny days."