American aircraft giant Boeing claims new “combat tanker” aircraft KC-46 Pegasus has attracted interest from Middle Eastern countries with its “self-protection” capabilities.
Rick Lemaster, Senior Regional Director at Boeing in an interview with DefenseHere said KC-46 was designed from the start to be a tanker:
“This is an aircraft that we designed for the US Air Force. We've already delivered about 77 of them out of a plan by about 179 and perhaps more. We call it a combat tanker because it's got self-protection capabilities.
It allows it to fly closer to hostilities to be able to refuel fighter aircraft or other cargo aircraft and extend the range of those aircraft to go execute their missions. There are many countries here in the region who are also looking at the KC-46, though I would point out it's a great opportunity for Turkey to go recapitalize some of their older KC-135 tankers. This would be a great addition to their military.”
The KC-46 was the winner of the US Air Force’s KC-X competition to replace the older Boeing KC-135 tankers in 2011. Apart from United States, Japan has two KC-46s in its inventory with two waiting to be ordered and Israel has ordered four KC-46s and plans to acquire eight KC-46s in total.
