The never ending KC-46 saga

[Maverick]

The USAF initially chose the much more capable A330-200 based KC-45 but surprising no one, Boeing sued and won. Now 10 years later this mutt still isn't in service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS/Northrop_Grumman_KC-45

 

Boeing disclosed another $176 million in cost overruns on its KC-46 tanker program, pushing the extra costs on its military refueling aircraft program to $3.6 billion.

In its third-quarter earnings report Wednesday, Boeing said its Boeing Commercial Airplanes unit swallowed $112 million of the costs, while Boeing Defense, Space and Security ate $64 million.

Boeing Chairman and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the continuing cost growth was due to "higher than expected effort to meet customer requirements to support delivery of the initial aircraft, as well as due to incremental delays in certification and testing."

Muilenburg and CFO Greg Smith said sales of the aerial refueling jets to the U.S. and allies will generate cash for Boeing and shareholders for decades ahead.

The KC-46 is a militarized version of specially-modified 767 airframes. Boeing makes them in its Everett factories, including a center where military systems and hardware are installed.

In March, two top Air Force officials complained about tanker delivery delays and urged Boeing to provide additional resources and engineering talent to fix the problems.

Boeing Defense CEO Leanne Caret in May vowed to deliver the first 18 KC-46 tankers in 2018. On Wednesday, Muilenburg said Boeing will deliver the first KC-46 "during the fourth quarter," but he raised the prospect of a few other deliveries, too.

"Though there's still work ahead of us, we're moving closer to delivering these highly mission-capable aircraft to our customer," Muilenburg said. "Currently, four aircraft have completed the FAA ticketing process and have moved to the Boeing military delivery center."

The Air Force has signed deals to buy 52 of the tankers so far, and Muilenburg said Boeing remains "very confident in the long-term value of this franchise."

He said the program's "going to have a production run measured in hundreds of airplanes with decades of follow-on support and training."

Analysts grilled Muilenburg about the possibility for tanker-like cost overruns on Boeing's new military contract wins: the T-X Air Force training jet and MQ-25 aerial refueling drone.

The Boeing CEO argued advance spending on prototypes helped win those deals. Two T-X test aircraft are already built and have completed 71 test flights. That makes them less risky than the tanker, Muilenburg said.

"These (trainers and drones) are small development programs leading to rapid production," Muilenburg said. "The risk profiles of these programs are dramatically different than the tanker."

Boeing said it also booked $691 million in charges for its planned T-X and MQ-25 program investments.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2018/10/24/boeing-kc46-pegasus-tanker-cost-overrun-air-force.html?fbclid=IwAR1dReNQKpDznoM5Dzz15_YDQgoPaRi9oLux6KEiSAgn3xhhF0AtwtACGE4

[blues deville]

This project has been a mess from day one.  

[Super 80]

I know a recently retired KC-135 pilot who was at one time really excited about the prospect of retiring with a good number of hours on the A330 or 767. They didn't think giving it another five years was going to see them on the 767 so they retired at twenty years and are debating between Delta and JetBlue.

[rudder]

Airlines typically get discounts of up to 50% on large commercial aircraft orders from Boeing. Do you think the US government gets the same discount? Unlikely.

Military industrial complex. Politics. Pork barreling.

[J.O.]

22 hours ago, Maverick said:

The USAF initially chose the much more capable A330-200 based KC-45 but surprising no one, Boeing sued and won. Now 10 years later this mutt still isn't in service.

Meanwhile the very successful A330 tanker platform has been in service with the Australian air force for several years. 

[Super 80]

On 10/27/2018 at 7:52 PM, Rich Pulman said:

Don’t think they’ll be seeing any A330 or B767 left seat time at either of those airlines any time soon. 

They wouldn't have much prospect of getting into any mainline left-seat if they stuck with the USAF much longer. They just had hoped to be retiring with hours on something other than the KC-135.

[Guest]

US Air Force restricts KC-46 from carrying cargo and passengers

By: Valerie Insinna   1 day ago  https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2019/09/11/air-force-restricts-kc-46-from-carrying-cargo-and-personnel/

 

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The KC-46 has added another critical deficiency to the list, and it's the most serious problem yet. (Senior Airman Christian Conrad/U.S. Air Force)

 

WASHINGTON — In a move that could have major impacts on the already-delayed tanker program, the U.S. Air Force has indefinitely barred the KC-46 from carrying cargo and passengers, Defense News has learned.

The decision was made after an incident occurred where the cargo locks on the bottom of the floor of the aircraft became unlocked during a recent flight, creating concerns that airmen could potentially be hurt or even killed by heavy equipment that suddenly bursts free during a flight.

“As a result of this discovery, the Air Force has submitted a Category 1 deficiency report and is working with Boeing to identify a solution,” Air Force Mobility Command spokesman Col. Damien Pickart said in a statement. The service uses the term Category 1 to describe serious technical issues that could endanger the aircrew and aircraft or have other major effects.

“Until we find a viable solution with Boeing to remedy this problem, we can’t jeopardize the safety of our aircrew and this aircraft,” he said.

 

 

 

Boeing delivers first KC-46, but fixes to technical problems still years away

Boeing could miss out on $1.5 billion if the maximum withholding is applied to all 52 tankers on contract.

By: Valerie Insinna

The problem was discovered during a recent overseas operational test and evaluation flight, when KC-46 aircrew noticed that numerous cargo restraint devices had come unlocked over the course of the multiple legs of the trip.

 

“Prior to departing for each of these missions, aircrew fully installed, locked and thoroughly inspected each restraint, and performed routine inspections of the restraints in flight,” Pickart said. “Despite these safety measures, the unlocking of cargo floor restraints occurred during flight, although no cargo or equipment moved and there was no specific risk to the aircraft or crew.”

A source with knowledge of the issue told Defense News that if all restraints on a particular pallet had become unlocked, it would be able to roll freely throughout the cabin. If all cargo became unlatched, it could pose a safety risk to aircrew or even unbalance the aircraft — making the plane “difficult, if not impossible” to control.

 

 

While this problem has only been observed on one KC-46, the Air Force does not have enough information to rule out other aircraft having a similar defect.

The problem also poses a danger to the tanker’s operational test schedule, Pickart said. The program was set to start initial operational test and evaluation this fall, with pre-IOT&E activities already initiated.

“This is a multi-mission aircraft, it’s for carrying cargo and passengers, it’s for refueling and also the aeromedical evacuation mission,” he said. “If you can’t carry cargo pallets and patient litters, a significant amount of your core missions cannot be properly tested.”

 

In a statement, KC-46 manufacturer Boeing acknowledged that it had been notified of the new issue.

“The company and the Air Force are cooperatively analyzing the locks to determine a root cause,” Boeing stated. “The safety of KC-46 aircraft and crew is our top priority. Once a cause has been identified, the tanker team will implement any required actions as quickly as possible.”

But the problem could be bad news for Boeing’s bottom line. The company is locked into a fixed-price contract for where it is responsible for paying for any expenses beyond the initial $4.9 billion award for development of the aircraft. So far, the company has paid more than $3.5 billion of its own money to fund corrections to ongoing technical issues.

Air Force finds new KC-46 deficiencies, jeopardizing planned delivery date

The Boeing-made tanker has encountered yet another set of issues.

By: Valerie Insinna

The latest Cat-1 deficiency brings the total up to four:

• The tanker’s remote vision system or RVS — the camera system that allows KC-46 boom operators to steer the boom into a receiver aircraft without having to look out a window and use visual cues — provides imagery in certain lighting conditions that appears warped or misleading. Boeing has agreed to pay for potentially extensive hardware and software fixes, but the Air Force believes it will be three or four years until the system is fully functional.
• The Air Force has recorded instances of the boom scraping against the airframe of receiver aircraft. Boeing and the Air Force believe this problem is a symptom of the RVS’s acuity problems and will be eliminated once the camera system is fixed.
• Boeing must redesign the boom to accommodate the A-10, which currently does not generate the thrust necessary to push into the boom for refueling. This problem is a requirements change by the Air Force, which approved Boeing’s design in 2016. Last month, Boeing received a $55.5 million contract to begin work on the new boom actuator.

While the KC-46 program has clocked several key milestones this year, it has also hit some publicly embarrassing stumbles.

 

After several years of delays, the Air Force finally signed off on the acceptance of the first tanker. However, due to the list of technical problems, Boeing was forced to accept an agreement where the service could withhold up to $28 million per aircraft upon delivery. About $360 million has been withheld so far, Defense One reported in July.

The Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s over the life of the program, and 52 are currently on contract. So far, Boeing has delivered 18 tankers to McConnell Air Force Base, Kan.; Altus Air Force Base, Okla; and Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H.

But deliveries were interrupted earlier this year by the discovery of foreign object debris in multiple planes. The Air Force suspended KC-46 flights at Boeing’s production line in Everett, Wash., this February after finding debris. Then it paused all tanker deliveries in March as the service investigated the extent of the problem. The service began accepting tankers again later that month, only for deliveries to stop — and restart — in April due to similar problems.

Will Roper, the service’s acquisition executive, told reporters at the Paris Air Show this July that the service expects to find foreign object debris in KC-46s moving through the line, and it may be months before planes are reliably clean.

 

“As those airplanes flow forward down the line, we think it’s going to take some time for the new quality assurance inspection processes to start early enough so that airplanes will flow that are FOD-free,” he said, according to Defense One. “It’s not the way we want to get airplanes into the Air Force, but it’s what we’re going to have to do in the meantime.”

This story was corrected on Sept. 12 at 1:50 p.m. EST to include Pease Air National Guard Base.

[boestar]

Cargo locks are in use on thousands of aircraft worldwide.  Did the Airforce try to reinvent the wheel?  Stick with what works.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, boestar said:

Cargo locks are in use on thousands of aircraft worldwide.  Did the Airforce try to reinvent the wheel?  Stick with what works.

 

It is a puzzler, maybe it had something to do with the track that the locks are clipped to?  Military pallets are normally thicker than the civilian ones (weight bearing needs) but based on the ones we saw coming back from Nam on the swing tail brits (CL-44D4} from HKG to YVR,  they locked into normal commercial aircraft with no problems.  https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2018-12-17/mcconnell-prepares-first-air-force-kc-46

[boestar]

I worked Cargo 30 years ago and the Pallet locking system in civilian Freighters has not changed in that time.I have loaded some pretty big crap into 747 freighters with the standard pallet locks.  When all positions are occupied, there is no way for a pallet to become "Free".

There have been accidents in the past where all of the locks were not use because of poor building of the pallet left an overhang so the thinking went "The adjacent pallets will hold it in place" This is flawed thinking and caused at least one crash that  know of.

If Boeing or the DND decided they came up with a better idea then they are sorely mistaken.

[Guest]

An update:

KC-46 cargo solution still ‘months’ away

By: Aaron Mehta and Valerie Insinna   28 minutes ago

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The 22nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Airmen tow a KC-46A Pegasus into Hangar 1126 on Jan. 25, 2019, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. (Airman 1st Class Alan Ricker/Air Force)

 

WASHINGTON — The Air Force expects to have a safety issue with the cargo capability of its KC-46A Pegasus Tanker fixed within “months,” the service’s top acquisition official said Tuesday.

Will Roper added that he was “confident” the issue would get fixed and said the problem, which has led the Air Force to stop the tankers for flying with cargo in their holds, was not his top concern for the Boeing-made plane.

“The issue with the locks was identified. We’re working options currently with Boeing and their supplier,” Roper said at a breakfast hosted by the Defense Writer’s Group. “We’re looking to our operators to tell us which one of the solutions that have been identified is the one that they prefer."

In September, Defense News first reported that the KC-46 was being restricted from carrying either cargo or people in the back of the aircraft. The decision was made after an incident occurred where the cargo locks on the bottom of the floor of the aircraft became unlocked during a recent flight, creating concerns that airmen could potentially be hurt or even killed by heavy equipment that suddenly bursts free during a flight.

It has been a rough year for the Kc-46. The Air Force suspended KC-46 flights at Boeing’s production line in Everett, Wash., this February after finding debris. Then it paused all tanker deliveries in March as the service investigated the extent of the problem. The service began accepting tankers again later that month, only for deliveries to stop — and restart — in April due to similar problems.

The cargo issue represents the fourth category 1 deficiency for the tanker, and the issues are becoming increasingly expensive for Boeing: The company is locked into a fixed-price contract for where it is responsible for paying for any expenses beyond the initial $4.9 billion award for development of the aircraft. So far, the company has paid more than $3.5 billion of its own money to fund corrections to ongoing technical issues. The other three issues are:

• The remote vision system or RVS — the camera system that allows KC-46 boom operators to steer the boom into a receiver aircraft without having to look out a window and use visual cues — provides imagery in certain lighting conditions that appears warped or misleading. Boeing has agreed to pay for potentially extensive hardware and software fixes, but the Air Force believes it will be three or four years until the system is fully functional.
• The Air Force has recorded instances of the boom scraping against the airframe of receiver aircraft. Boeing and the Air Force believe this problem is a symptom of the RVS’s acuity problems and will be eliminated once the camera system is fixed.
• Boeing must redesign the boom to accommodate the A-10, which currently does not generate the thrust necessary to push into the boom for refueling. This problem is a requirements change by the Air Force, which approved Boeing’s design in 2016. Last month, Boeing received a $55.5 million contract to begin work on the new boom actuator.

Roper said the cargo issue “goes into the kind of normal deficiency space,” and noted that its the type of issue that is discovered by the normal testing process. The more long-term issues, such as the remote visual system, are “the areas I keep the most focus on,” he said.

[Guest]

The KC-46 is back to carrying cargo and passengers

By: Valerie Insinna    18 minutes ago

 

 

 

WASHINGTON — After a three month ban on carrying cargo and passengers, the first KC-46 tanker has received new cargo locks that will allow flight restrictions to be removed, the U.S. Air Force announced Friday.

Following the successful installation and testing of a new cargo lock design, the Air Force on Dec. 18 officially declared the problem, which it had labeled a category 1 deficiency, as “closed." The service uses the term “category 1” to describe serious technical issues that could endanger the aircrew and aircraft or have other major effects.

“KC-46A integration represents an important step in recapitalizing our aging tanker fleet. While the program has not been without challenges, resolving this deficiency is a step in the right direction,” Will Roper, the Air Force’s acquisition executive, said in a statement.

The first KC-46 to introduce the new locks, based at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, has already resumed cargo operations, according to the Air Force.

In a separate statement, Boeing spokesman Larry Chambers said the company has retrofitted four tankers with new locks. “We continue to work closely with the Air Force to outfit all delivered aircraft with the new locks,” he said.

The Air Force instated the flight restrictions in September after an incident occurred where the cargo locks on the bottom of the floor of the aircraft became unlocked during a flight, creating concerns that airmen could potentially be hurt or even killed by heavy equipment that suddenly bursts free during a flight. Defense News was the first to report the problem.

Aircrew reported that, over multiple legs of a trip overseas, they noticed that several restraints had become unlocked. Although the locks did not unlatch completely in those cases, it potentially presented a major safety risk to the crew and passengers, as a heavy pallet of cargo rolling around the cabin could cause injury or even unbalance the plane during flight.

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Jamie Burgess, Boeing’s KC-46 program manager, told Defense News in September that the company planned to pitch a hardware fix to the tanker’s existing cargo locks.

“The concept for a fix is to put something in there that is a secondary latching like a spring or something like that that will hold it in place,” he said. “We’ve not finalized that, but it’s something that we’re working with the Air Force on, and the intent is to get some parts tested soon. We have some prototype parts that are being tested right now, and if the design works, then we would get it out there and get it on the airplanes. And we think that’s a relatively near-term thing.”

The U.S. Air Force plans to buy 179 KC-46s over the course of the program; the service accepted the first tanker earlier this year.

However, the program is experiencing growing pains. Most critically, the Air Force is not satisfied with the performance of its remote vision system, a series of sensors that KC-46 boom operators use to guide the boom into a receiving aircraft for refueling. Officials say it will take years to make the necessary hardware and software changes.

[Guest]

The Air Force’s KC-46 tanker has another serious technical deficiency, and Boeing is stuck paying for it

By: Valerie Insinna    13 hours ago

44342

 

The 22nd Air Refueling Wing's newest KC-46A Pegasus lands, Dec. 20, 2019, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. (Airman 1st Class Alexi Bosarge/U.S. Air Force)

 

WASHINGTON — The Air Force on Monday logged another critical technical flaw for the KC-46 tanker, this time revolving around excessive fuel leaks.

Under its contract with the service, KC-46 manufacturer Boeing is responsible for paying for a fix to the problem, Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Cara Bousie said in a statement.

“The Air Force and Boeing are working together to determine the root cause and implement corrective actions,” she said. “The KC-46 program office continues to monitor the entire KC-46 fleet and is enhancing acceptance testing of the fuel system to identify potential leaks at the factory where they can be repaired prior to delivery.”

A fix for the KC-46 is already a year late

Boeing is projected to begin rolling out a fix in 2023-2024.

By: Valerie Insinna, Joe Gould

The problem was first discovered in July 2019, but the Air Force did not say why the issue had been escalated to Category 1 status — the designation given to problems with a significant impact on operations or safety. The service also did not immediately comment on questions about what sort of receiver aircraft were most involved with the deficiency or the severity of the problem.

A Boeing spokesman said that the Air Force had discovered 16 aircraft in need of repair, and that seven have already been fixed.

TRANSCOM head pushes back against Air Force tanker retirements

The head of U.S. Transportation Command is pushing the Air Force to rethink some of its controversial plans to retire some of its older aerial refueling aircraft.

By: Joe Gould, Valerie Insinna

“The KC-46 fuel system is equipped with redundant protection for fuel containment. In some cases with this issue, aircraft maintenance crews are finding fuel between the primary and secondary fuel protection barriers within the system,” the company said in a statement.

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Boeing is working with “utmost urgency” to address the problem and implement a fix to the remaining aircraft, the statement said. A Boeing spokesman added it would take about 10 days to retrofit each aircraft at the rapid response depot facility in San Antonio, Texas. The fix was also being incorporated into production line in Everett, Wash., which is currently undergoing a temporary suspension due to COVID-19.

The latest Category 1 deficiency brings the total up to four:

• The tanker’s remote vision system or RVS — the camera system that allows KC-46 boom operators to steer the boom into a receiver aircraft without having to look out a window and use visual cues — provides imagery in certain lighting conditions that appears warped or misleading. Boeing has agreed to pay for potentially extensive hardware and software fixes, but the Air Force believes it will system won’t be fully functional until 2023-2024.
• The Air Force has recorded instances of the boom scraping against the airframe of receiver aircraft. Boeing and the Air Force believe this problem is a symptom of the RVS’s acuity problems and will be eliminated once the camera system is fixed.
• Boeing must redesign the boom to accommodate the A-10, which currently does not generate the thrust necessary to push into the boom for refueling. This problem is a requirements change by the Air Force, which approved Boeing’s design in 2016. Last year, Boeing received a $55.5 million contract to begin work on the new boom actuator.

Boeing’s fixed-priced firm contract for the development of the KC-46 has a $4.9 billion ceiling that leaves the company responsible for any expenses billed in excess of that amount. So far, the company has paid more than $3.5 billion of its own money to fund corrections to ongoing technical issues.

[Guest]

Done deal: Boeing will have to rip and replace KC-46 sensor and camera systems on its own dime

By: Valerie Insinna    13 minutes ago

 

 

New Hampshire Air National Guard Staff Sgt. Joseph Chase, a flightline crew chief with the 157th Maintenance Squadron, marshals the Wing's fifth and newest KC-46A air refueling tanker upon its arrival from Boeing, Feb. 7, 2020. (Tech. Sgt. Aaron Vezeau/U.S. Air National Guard)

 

WASHINGTON — Boeing and the Air Force have finalized an agreement to fix the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker’s most serious technical problem, Defense News has learned from multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The agreement puts an end to years of negotiations between the Air Force and aerospace giant over the nature and extent of redesign work needed to correct the Remote Vision System, the collection of cameras and sensors that provide boom operators the imagery needed to steer the boom into another aircraft and safely transfer fuel.

The Air Force’s KC-46 tanker has another serious technical deficiency, and Boeing is stuck paying for it

The KC-46 is back up to four critical "Category 1" deficiencies.

By: Valerie Insinna

Perhaps more importantly, the deal paves a path that will allow the service to deploy the KC-46 in combat in the mid 2020s — something Air Force leaders have bristled against with the tanker in its current form.

The Air Force and Boeing have agreed on a two-phased roadmap to address RVS technical issues, said one source familiar with the agreement.

The first phase allows Boeing to continue providing incremental improvements to software and hardware that will fine-tune the imagery seen by the boom operator, the source said. The second phase — which will take years to complete — involves a comprehensive redesign of the RVS where its hardware and software will be almost completely replaced with new color cameras, advanced displays and improved computing technology.

Boeing and the Air Force both declined to comment on the matter.

TRANSCOM head pushes back against Air Force tanker retirements

The head of U.S. Transportation Command is pushing the Air Force to rethink some of its controversial plans to retire some of its older aerial refueling aircraft.

By: Joe Gould, Valerie Insinna

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Unlike legacy tankers, where boom operators can look out a window in the back of the aircraft and rely on visual cues to steer the boom, operators in the KC-46 are completely dependent on the imagery provided by the RVS.

Although Air Force operators say the system works in most conditions — and provides a safer way to offload fuel during nighttime conditions or bad weather — certain lighting conditions can cause the RVS imagery to appear warped and misleading, contributing to cases where the boom accidentally scrapes the surface of another aircraft. That could be a safety hazard for the pilot of the plane receiving gas, and it could also potentially scrape the stealth coating off a low observable jet, eroding its ability to evade radar detection.

Under the terms of Boeing’s fixed-price firm contract and previous agreements with the service, the company will be financially responsible for paying for the entirety of the redesign effort. The company has already exceeded the $4.9 billion ceiling on the contract, and has paid more than $3.5 billion in cost overruns as technical problems have mounted.

Boeing is the system integrator for the RVS and designs its software, while the system’s cameras and sensors are primarily designed by Rockwell Collins.

Air Force’s acquisition executive Will Roper is expected to brief congressional staff on the deal this afternoon, sources said. Afterwards, the service is expected to release additional information about the deal.

Boeing delivered the first KC-46 tanker to McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., in January 2019, but the Air Force has withheld $28 million per aircraft upon delivery due to the RVS issues. So far, the company has delivered 33 tankers to the service.

[boestar]

How did that flaw even make it through initial functional testing.  Were there no standards in place?

Boeing has done a pathetic job in transforming a proven airframe into a working tanker.  It really is shameful.

 

[blues deville]

4 hours ago, boestar said:

How did that flaw even make it through initial functional testing.  Were there no standards in place?

Boeing has done a pathetic job in transforming a proven airframe into a working tanker.  It really is shameful.

 

This legacy plane maker needs a full ‘D’ check.

[Guest]

And the Boeing FOD beat goes on.

KC-46 delivery to Seymour Johnson delayed after debris found in fuel tank

Stephen Losey and Valerie Insinna

2 hours ago

A KC-46 is displayed Jan. 24, 2019, at Boeing's production facility in Everett, Wash., ahead of a ceremony marking the first KC-46 delivery. (Valerie Insinna/Staff)

The delivery of a new KC-46 Pegasus tanker aircraft to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina has been delayed after foreign object debris was found inside the plane by Boeing inspectors.

The delayed aircraft was to have been one of the first two KC-46s delivered to Air Force Reserve Command at Seymour Johnson on June 12. But while the first was successfully delivered, debris was found in the fuel tank of the second during its pre-acceptance inspections.

In a statement provided to Air Force Times and Defense News on Monday, the Air Force said the debris came from “non-standard factory rework,” and not the kind of “production line quality escapes” that caused the Air Force to halt KC-46 deliveries in March 2019.

Those problems with foreign object debris, or FOD, led the Air Force to put a plan in place to correct the problem.

“Boeing has made great strides on their production line focusing on product quality, tool control and FOD prevention,” the Air Force said. “However, debris left behind during non-standard production rework indicates we still have work to do to propagate the good culture changes from the production side to the broader Boeing enterprise."

“The Air Force and Boeing remain committed to process improvement, and in this specific instance, Boeing continues to investigate the root cause and corrective action,” the Air Force said.

Boeing said in its own statement that one of the company’s quality inspectors found the debris.

Air Force again halts KC-46 deliveries after more debris found

Similar debris problems halted Pegasus deliveries for more than two weeks about a month ago.

 

“During Boeing’s thorough inspection process prior to delivery, some small manufacturing debris was discovered by a Boeing quality inspector,” Boeing spokesman Larry Chambers said. “That prompted us to perform additional inspections prior to delivering the aircraft.”

“The inspection process is working exactly as it’s supposed to,” Chambers continued. “Boeing will take all the necessary time required to deliver the highest quality aircraft to the Air Force, but we do not anticipate a significant delay. We are working with the Air Force to determine the delivery schedule.”

This delay is the latest in a series of debris-related troubles delaying Boeing’s delivery of KC-46 aircraft.

Just a month after Boeing began delivering the KC-46 to the Air Force in January 2019, the service found foreign object debris — tools or other materials used to build the aircraft — left behind in multiple KC-46s, creating a potential safety hazard. As a result, the Air Force stopped accepting new tankers over a weeks-long period in March and April 2019 as it investigated the issue.

Meanwhile, Boeing responded by putting in place changes to its manufacturing processes and a series of enhanced inspections conducted by its employees — all paid for by the company.

In June 2019, Air Force acquisition head Will Roper acknowledged that it would take time for the cultural changes at Boeing to stick. As many tankers had already moved through various stages of production without adhering to the more stringent quality control processes, it could take months for the Air Force to begin accepting tankers without FOD.

“We expect all of them are going to have foreign object debris,” he said then, according to Defense One. “As we go through and we’re doing sweeps, we’re finding FOD in the planes.”

In the case of the tanker that was held back last week, FOD was found during one of Boeing’s final inspections, before the aircraft would have transferred to the Air Force and the Defense Contracts Management Agency for government acceptance tests, said one source with knowledge of the program. That triggered another series of detailed inspections by Boeing.

So far, Boeing has delivered 34 KC-46s to McConnell AFB, Kansas; Altus AFB, Oklahoma; Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H.; and Seymour Johnson. The service plans to order 179 aircraft total.

Earlier this month, the Air Force announced that it would delay a full rate production decision for the KC-46 program until the end of fiscal 2024 so that the aircraft could be tested once major deficiencies were corrected. One issue involves replacing the tanker’s Remote Vision System, which is used by boom operators to see outside of the aircraft during the refueling process, while the other problem involves the stiffness of the KC-46 boom, which cannot refuel the A-10 Warthog.

Under its $4.9 billion fixed-price firm contract with the Air Force, Boeing is responsible for paying for all cost overruns for which it is responsible. So far, the company has paid $4.6 billion out of pocket on the program

[conehead]

11 hours ago, Marshall said:

 

Under its $4.9 billion fixed-price firm contract with the Air Force, Boeing is responsible for paying for all cost overruns for which it is responsible. So far, the company has paid $4.6 billion out of pocket on the program

So, Boeing has made almost nothing on this contract?

[Bobcaygeon]

They'll make their money on the service contracts and the various updates and life extensions. The KC-135 is pushing 60 years old and Boeing will have made a a lot of money selling parts, updating the aircraft, and dealing with aging aircraft issues.

 

Airbus originally won the contract with the 330 MRTT but it was overridden. I doubt the A330 would have ever been delivered due to protectionism (Canadians would to do the same if we ordered E145's instead of CRJ's for our military) but it sure made Boeing drop their pricing to get the deal. They'll just markup the parts  

[330Heavy]

Whole FOD thing sounds to me like disgruntled employees.  Reminds me of a story I was told long ago (unsubstantiated) about such an employee(s) at Chrysler who put bolt/nuts in the door panels.  Buyers would eventually take the car to get the rattled checked out/fixed, costing Chrysler a sum of money for the cheap fix and extra nuts gone missing.

[Fido]

For many years, I helped the salesman sell software to airlines. 

One airline offered to 'buy' a particular software package for $50,000 which to me was well below the millions that had been paid by other airlines for.  I was surprised when the VP of sales jumped at the offer because as he explained we would make for doing 'customizations' for said airline.  Apparently said airline was famous for wanting the background colours changed.

[boestar]

I can attest that for major software platforms like reservation and maintenanace systems, the money is in support not the purchase.

[Maverick]

Boeing Defense And Space’s Leanne Caret: ‘We’re Owning Our Mistakes’

Jen DiMascio Joe Anselmo Michael Bruno Steve Trimble July 01, 2020

Boeing defense chief Leanne Caret and outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have been working to fix the remote vision system of the KC-46 (background) by fiscal 2023.

Credit: Boeing

Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, spoke via teleconference with Aviation Week editors in the run-up to what would have been the Farnborough Airshow.

AW&ST: In addition to the turnover among Boeing executives, the company’s stock and reputation have taken a beating in the past year. How is Boeing a different company today than it was 18 months ago? I am confident in the Boeing Co., and we have an enormously bright future. It’s because of the incredible women and men who work for this company and bring their best every day. We have become a very introspective company, very pragmatic. We’re owning our mistakes, and we’re committing to address those. That is the centerpiece of what you have to do to have trust, especially in an industry as critically important as ours is, where people are flying and using our products every day, whether commercially or defending nations and allies.

How has COVID-19 affected the goals that Boeing Defense set at the start of the year? The defense industry has been deemed mission-essential. We need to make certain we’re continuing to deliver product to our customers, we keep our supply base healthy, and we all have an eye to the future. I really appreciate the partnership and conversations we’ve had with the Pentagon. You’ve heard [Boeing CEO/President] David Calhoun mention that, after what has happened in the commercial aerospace market, the defense business is important to the Boeing Co.—has been and always will be.

After COVID-19, what does the future hold for defense spending? We have a very pragmatic view of the future. I don’t anticipate significant budget increases. We have always planned that at some point we could see a regression in defense budgets.

Wall Street is expecting about a 2% increase in revenue for Boeing over the next couple of years. That is on the lower end of where your peers are. They are in the mid-single digits. What rate of growth do you see? I think it’s important to note where we are in the life cycle of many of the products in our portfolio. Where you will continue to see opportunity for us as we move into production on some of those key franchise programs that we won a few years ago is the [T-7 advanced trainer, MQ-25 unmanned carrier-based refueling aircraft and MH-139 helicopter].

We’re all going to see the marketplace adjust as a result of COVID-19. Around the world, we’ve already seen some delays and some very large competitions that have been slighted because customers are having to assess where they are. I want our team to have as its centerpiece meeting our customers’ needs and expectations, and I believe that the outcome of that will be growing the business and strong financial performance.

Many big programs are coming down the line, such as the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft, the Advanced Battle Management System, the Next--Generation Air Dominance or the Future Vertical Lift programs. The Pentagon is emphasizing procurement with more control over intellectual property, fewer hooks into the sustainment phase and more competition. How will Boeing adapt to that over time? Will it require fundamental changes? In the last decade, we were focused on redefining how we designed and built aircraft. We were anticipating that the customer was going to commoditize the type of product that we have traditionally built. We have a foundation in model-based systems engineering to bring the collective best from industry together, so that when a system is in the field, we have developed it with maintainers in mind.

Boeing hopes its T-7A advanced trainer will boost the defense division’s financial performance. Credit: Boeing

That’s where our build process has really paid off. In 2016, we had not won the T-7 or MQ-25 contracts or certainly not had any thought of the F-15EX yet. All three of those used this concept, which is to use advanced engineering and design toolsets to address the customer’s vision. We placed our bets on changing the way we did business, and we have positioned ourselves nicely.

Please update us on the KC-46. Where do things stand with the foreign object debris (FOD) situation? I’m not going to be happy until we’re perfect, and we’re not perfect yet. My focus is to make sure we don’t deliver any aircraft with FOD to the U.S. government. If that means I need to hold back a delivery because a member of our team identified an issue, we’re going to do the right thing. The most important thing is to deliver a perfect product to the customer. I think it is a testament to the steps that we have taken that we will not pass a defect to our customer. It speaks to the culture change that we have instituted over the last 1.5 years. Quite frankly, we have used KC-46 as the bully pulpit to redefine what we want to do as a company, and I’m really proud of the team for leading the way.

Is Boeing on track for fixing the KC-46’s remote vision system (RVS) in fiscal 2023? We are looking to demonstrate RVS 1.5 later this summer. It is a building block to what we call RVS 2.0. We have put in place a standard and an agreement that we are all aligned around, that really transcends what the original contract anticipated in terms of RVS. What we are incorporating posi-tions this fleet for not only a leap forward in technology but for autonomous operations in the future. We are on track in this partnership with the U.S. Air Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory. And yes, the timeline is in 2023.

What is the outlook for selling F-18s internationally, given the potential for pandemic-related budget reductions in the future? We’ve secured a number of orders with F-18s that have kept our production line hot. Coupled with that, we’re doing the service life modernization program with the U.S. Navy, where we’re bringing every one of the aircraft back through and increasing capabilities that eventually will include Block 3 capabilities. We have seen signs that campaigns in Canada, Finland, Germany, India and Switzerland are sliding a bit to the right. None of them have been, to my knowledge, canceled or stopped.

Caret says the F-15QA made for the Qatari air force is “not your grandma’s F-15.”  Credit: Boeing

One of the things that we’ve seen them dealing with is the impact of COVID. Many times, they have the budget, but the budget may go out a longer period of time. Or right now they are impacted by staff shortages. These are some big opportunities, and I think the F-18 is positioned nicely, both from the aspects of an acquisition cost and the cost per flying hour.

What is the outlook for the F-15? We just did our F-15 Qatar flight a few weeks back. We have continued to demonstrate the ability of the F-15 with our Saudi and Qatari customers and the U.S. Air Force. We’re really excited about that opportunity, and it won’t be your grandma’s F-15.

Boeing is a bit late on delivering the Space Launch System (SLS), and it was left out of NASA’s competition to build a lunar lander. What are you doing to turn those programs around? On Space Launch Systems, I am really proud of the team for the amazing capabilities they developed with the world’s largest rocket. She’s sitting on the stand at Stennis Space Center. After watching how this team has battled through the COVID crisis, I’m looking forward to having a hot-fire [test] later this year. Early on, we struggled on SLS from an execution phase. There were also different challenges from a funding perspective and other things. Over the course of the last 1.5-2 years, the team has been hitting its milestones and commitments.

On the civil space side, SpaceX beat Boeing to the punch on the first Commercial Crew mission. Are you looking to change your approach?  On Starliner, we did not execute the full mission profile, and the right thing to do is to refly. I think that’s the right decision, and the teams are focused on that. Our partnership with NASA dates back more than 60 years, and we’re incredibly proud of this heritage. But our future isn’t defined by our past. It’s about making certain that we can continue to innovate and deliver today. This year marks 20 years for the International Space Station. 

I just couldn’t be more thrilled for the team as Doug [Hurley] and Bob [Behnken] were able to join the other astronauts aboard this station. Human space exploration is not for the faint of heart. It changes mankind. We are going to continue to be a great partner, and we’re going to continue to advocate for everyone’s success when it comes to human space exploration—because it is that important for all of us.

 

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