House and Senate versions of the FY2026 NDAA offer competing visions for the Air Force’s refueling fleet, threatening to ...

The Air Force may have to keep its aging KC-135 tankers flying beyond their planned 2050 retirement, depending on how many new tankers it buys in coming years and whether a next-generation refueling ...

Robotics company Merlin has successfully conducted the first three autonomous control flights on a KC-135 tanker aircraft. These flights took place at the Pittsburgh Air National Guard Base under an ...

Acceptance of the "airworthiness plan" allows the KC-135 autonomous flight test program to get underway, Merlin said. [Courtesy: U.S. Air Force] The U.S. Air Force has signed off on a plan to put AI ...

ANDREWS AFB, Maryland—Enabling communications between different platforms is a persistent challenge across the Joint Force. The U.S. Air Force believes it has a solution: turn the legacy KC-135 tanker ...

An unclassified U.S. Air Force report, mandated by the 2025 NDAA, included figures of the required combat fleet, calling for an increase of nearly 300 ...

The US Air Force’s newest aerial tanker, the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, has encountered a roadblock with the congressional oversight that approves budgets and procurement. The projected procurement in 2026 ...

A Boeing KC-46 on the runway at Pease ANGB, New Hampshire, in September. Credit: Air National Guard GRAPEVINE, Texas—Final deliveries of U.S. Air Force-purchased KC-46s are expected in 2031, two years ...

UK investigators have underlined the importance of transponders, after a serious airprox incident in which a US Air Force Boeing KC-135 carried out an evasive manoeuvre to avoid an undetected glider.