First operational KC-46 flies

Boeing has finally acknowledged that they won't make their internal deadline of delivering the first KC-46 to the Air Force this year, but has taken an important step towards delivering 18 aircraft by October 2018. That deadline is contractual. The first aircraft that is considered an operational airframe flew December 5th.

The program is expected to announce two of the three Category One deficiencies as being resolved by year's end. The boom scraping issue may be resolved with the new cameras, but they won't know that until next year, after replacing them and testing the new system.

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