2 Live Crew – The Air Force Flew a KC-46 Refueling Mission with Just One Pilot and One Boom Operator

The Air Force’s newest aerial refueling tanker is a big ole’ beast. Based on Boeing’sBA
767, the KC-46 Pegasus is 165 feet long and 156 feet from wingtip to wingtip. Last week, just two crewmen flew a Pegasus through a full aerial refueling mission from takeoff to rendezvous to tanking.

The pair took off from McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas in a 22nd Aerial Refueling Wing (ARW) KC-46 to “validate procedures for operating with a limited aircrew for certain potential high-end combat scenarios,” the Air Force said in an Air Mobility Command press release.

Contrary to what the public might think, Air Force tanker crews have long been small teams, typically with three (pilot/co-pilot/boom operator) or four (adding a navigator) people operating a KC-135, the service’s most numerous and longest-standing tanker. But while a crew of just two isn’t novel in a fighter-type aircraft like the F-15E Strike Eagle or F-16D Fighting Falcon, it’s rare for a large refueling tanker.

Air Mobily Command (AMC) explained that the mission was flown to confirm that just a pair of crewmen can get a Pegasus off the ground where it is vulnerable to attack (particularly in the Indo-Pacific where China threatens U.S. bases with a hoard of missiles) and do something useful with it when once in the air. The concept foresees a reduced crew rapidly launching the aircraft with threats inbound or extending long-range operations in the air with offset crews AMC reckons.

“In wartime, airfields are static targets, as are any aircraft on the airfield when an attack is inbound,” said Col. Nate Vogel, 22nd ARW commander. “But once airborne, the aircraft is a mobile platform capable of maneuver and continuing to provide mission capability for the combatant commander.”

Aerial refueling tankers are essential to keeping Air Force, Navy and Marines aviation assets in the fight across the vast Pacific distances such operations require. Recent think-tank reports have affirmed that the Air Force is facing a gap in aerial refueling capacity through the mid-2020s as it retires aged KC-10 and KC-135 tankers faster than they can be replaced by the KC-46A or another follow-on tanker.

A Hudson Institute report released late last year estimated the service will experience an approximately 6 to 11 percent reduction in aggregate fuel offload capacity this decade. That reality and the potential threat from China explain AMC commander, General Mike Minihan’s admonition that already hard-pressed tanker aircrews will have to stretch as far as possible to meet the tanking demands of a peer fight.

“I have been very clear with my team: victory will be delivered on the back of the mobility air forces and doing so means taking a hard look at every tool we have at our disposal. The dynamics of the future operating environment require us to think in ways we might not usually think.”

The October 25th mission with a single pilot and a single boom operator was executed inside military test airspace and included two sorties. The first saw the KC-46 crew fly the pattern only, followed by a debrief and assessment.

The second sortie followed immediately and AMC says, accomplished a full mission profile “including ground operations; preflight tasks; takeoff; aerial refueling rendezvous; air refueling on-load and offload; landing; and debrief.” The boom operator was co-located in the cockpit with the pilot, except when performing boom operations, and a second instructor pilot was on board throughout the entire mission to serve as a safety observer.

A second KC-46 with a full crew complement of subject matter experts accompanied the first aircraft to provide assistance by radio, if needed. The two-crew KC-46 duo practiced the evolution first in the simulator, partly to familiarize themselves with the basic functions and critical controls of unfamiliar crew positions – particularly the boom operator.

Apparently, the experiment went well, a bit of good news for the KC-46 which has been plagued with operational debut delays, Remote Vision System problems, and cost overruns including a nearly $1.2 billion charge on the KC-46 program which Boeing incurred as part of an overall $3.3 billion loss third quarter of 2022.

While a positive test, the experiment is a sign that the Air Force recognizes not only the vulnerability of its aerial refueling tanker fleet but of continued challenges in manning that fleet with qualified aircrew as morale inside the politicized service dips, personnel leave and recruiting fails to keep pace with demand.

With a nod to the famed Miami-based 90s hip-hop group “2 Live Crew”, the KC-46 sorties inadvertently show an operationally-challenged AMC struggling to prove it can “Throw The D” in the Indo-Pacific.