Air Force Eyes a Busy 2027 to Resolve KC-46 Vision System Issues

DAYTON, Ohio—After years of struggling to get the KC-46A Pegasus an updated and improved remote vision system for aerial refueling, Air Force officials say the end of the saga is in sight.

Officials in charge of the Air Force’s mobility fleet and the KC-46 program itself told reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference here that significant progress has been made on RVS 2.0 and KC-46s are expected to start getting the new system in late 2027 and early 2028.

Those officials also claimed that Boeing and the Air Force are working more closely together to address the KC-46’s remaining major issues that have plagued the tanker for years now.

“What we’ve seen over the last six months is both Boeing and the Air Force recommitting to the KC-46,” said Col. David Hall, the senior materiel leader for the Air Force’s KC-46 division.

To date, the Air Force has received 108 of the 188 KC-46s from the original program of record, Brig. Gen. William L. Ottati, the Air Force’s portfolio acquisition executive for mobility told reporters. The KC-46 fleet has already been used multiple times operationally, including as part of Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

Yet despite those milestones, the service and Boeing are still working to resolve problems that cropped up in the late 2010s, not least of which is the original Collins Aerospace-made remote vision system.

Legacy refueling tankers require boom operators to lay on their stomachs at the back of the aircraft and look through a window to guide the refueling boom into the receiving aircraft. But the KC-46 was designed to allow its boom operators to sit in stations at the front of the tanker and use cameras, sensors, and screens to guide the boom.

But that original vision system has major flaws. The Air Force said it sometimes produces a distorted image and does not respond quickly enough to changing sun and shadows, which the service worried could lead to the receiving aircraft getting damaged by a misguided boom.

The replacement system, RVS 2.0, uses a series of sensors, screens, and 4K ultra-high definition cameras to produce a 3D color image for boom operators. It was initially supposed to be released in March 2024, but has repeatedly slipped more than three years behind schedule due to supply chain problems and delays in the Federal Aviation Administration’s airworthiness certification process.

Of the KC-46’s five remaining major problems known as Category 1 deficiencies, Ottati said, two relate to the original RVS.

RVS 2.0 has made testing progress in recent months. The first test aircraft with the new vision system first flew in November 2025 to start months of validation tests that concluded in April. These tests were “non-contact” and did not use the system to actually connect with another aircraft.

Ottati called the KC-46’s recent no-contact testing “a risk reduction type of opportunity, that we might not have done in the past,” and a way to move forward on RVS 2.0 as fast as possible.

Hall said that after the last RVS 2.0 delay occurred about a year and a half ago, the program “really took a hard look at the schedule” to figure out “how do we get in the air as fast as possible?”

Rather than wait for RVS 2.0’s software to be completed, Hall said, the KC-46 program took an early version of the software into the air.

Ottati said the second test KC-46 with RVS 2.0 is now in modification, and those modifications are expected to be done by the end of 2026, paving the way for more extensive testing the following year.

Hall said that once Collins Aerospace, the primary subcontractor on RVS 2.0, delivers the final software, the KC-46 program can move into full contact testing that involves actual connections with receiving aircraft. Those tests are now scheduled for summer 2027, Hall said, though the program is looking for ways to push that timeline earlier. 

Those full tests will open the door to certification of the RVS 2.0 system later in 2027, Hall said, and retrofits to add the system to existing jets will start taking place by the end of that year.

RVS 2.0 will start to be cut in to new KC-46s during its 11th lot, Hall said, and “we’ve already started bending metal on the first cut-in for RVS 2.0.” Those planes will start to roll off the line at the beginning of 2028.

Getting RVS 2.0 figured out quickly is important for both Boeing and the Air Force, because Pentagon leaders have said they will not sign a contract buying an additional 75 KC-46s, which would replace aging KC-135s, until Boeing makes significant progress fixing the Category 1 issues.

“We have made a firm commitment that we will not obligate funds [for the additional 75 KC-46s] until Boeing establishes a definitive path to resolve and clear those” deficiencies, Ottati said.

Boeing officials, speaking the same day as Ottati on an earnings call, struck a more optimistic tone on the KC-46 and other fixed-price contract programs than in the past.

“I would say—don’t fall off your chair—KC-46 feels very low risk for the [estimate at completions] going forward,” Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg said. “I think we’ve done a really good job finally on that project. … I think we’ve got KC-46 well in hand.”

Speaking to reporters, Ottati declined to weigh in on Ortberg’s comments on risk and said “it’s kind of hard to just encapsulate the entirety of the program as one risk level.”

But Ottati said that while the KC-46 still has some reliability issues, the Air Force is not seeing as many quality problems slip through as it has in the past.

Hall said his confidence is now “significantly higher” that the Category 1 deficiencies will be fixed than it was about 18 months ago. Besides the RVS, the other deficiencies stem from a stiff telescoping actuator in the boom, which prevents the KC-46 from refueling aircraft such as the A-10 Warthog, and two problems with the KC-46’s drain line and cracking in its air system ducts.

A fix for the duct cracking problem has been effectively solved, Hall said, and is expected to start hitting the fleet at the end of 2026. The drain line solution should start being installed in mid-2027, he said. Finally, the RVS 2.0 and boom telescope actuator redesign, or BTAR, solutions are both on track for the end of 2027, Hall said.

Hall cautioned that those deficiencies might not completely close right away, but they will probably be downgraded.

“We won’t close them until we’re all totally buttoned up with all the retrofits,” Hall said. “I see us getting to a downgrade path in mid ’27 if all of that still holds.”

While RVS 2.0 has had a rocky road, Ottati and Hall sang the praises of the near-final result. Hall called it “phenomenal,” and said “it’s exactly what the [boom operators] need.”

Ottati agreed, and lamented he did not have a demo of RVS 2.0 available to show reporters.

“It’s eye-watering how much better it is than the current system,” Ottati said.

Boeing has offered reporters a few glimpses of RVS 2.0 several years ago, but that was before the system was finalized.