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PeGasUs stretCHes Her WInGs

Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Moores, Commander 344th Air Refueling Squadron provides insight into the squadron’s transition to the KC-46A Pegasus, its expanding mission set and full integration in the type’s initial operational test and evaluation.

Mark Ayton

Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Moores accepted command of the 344th Air Refueling Squadron (ARS) during a change of commend ceremony at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas on 27 May, 2020. Lt Col Moores is the second commander of the 344th since it has been equipped with the Boeing KC-46A, assuming command from his wingman and friend, Lt Col Wesley Spurlock who commanded the unit when the first KC-46A arrived at McConnell in January 2019.

Lt Col Moores is a command pilot, having logged over 2,500 hours in both airlift (Lockheed C-5 Galaxy) and tanker (Boeing KC-135 and KC-46A) aircraft. During his back-to-back assignments with the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell, Moores has been involved with the KC-46A transition process at the sprawling tanker base.

sQUadron BUILd-UP

Before the first KC-46A Pegasus arrived at McConnell, the 344th ARS comprised just a couple dozen airmen. All of them transitioned from the KC-135 with Boeing at its flight test facility at King County Airport in Seattle. Most made repeated trips to Seattle just to stay current in the KC-46A. Today, the 344th ARS has 22 KC-46A aircraft assigned and more than 160 personnel in its ranks, who currently represent half of the entire pool of KC-46A experience in the Air Force.

Lt Col Moores said of the squadron’s build-up: “It’s been a period of growth, not only physically as a squadron but in the development of how we fly, employ and figure out the aeroplane. Two and a half years ago nobody here had even flown the KC-46A out of McConnell Air Force Base. Now we’re flying it all around the world.”

Moores believes that the best thing to ever happen to the KC-46A programme occurred when the US Air Force made the decision to put the aeroplane into the hands of the airmen to start its initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) programme. Operational testing is designed to determine whether the aircraft meets its 14 key performance parameters and is operationally suitable. The 344th’s commander has no concerns for his airmen being able to employ the aircraft.

From a maintenance perspective, all sorts of hurdles presented themselves during the acceptance process of the KC-46A. Team McConnell maintenance squadrons have figured out the required maintenance processes and procedures using their experience gained from years of maintaining the KC-135.

Air Mobility Command and the 22nd

A KC-46A Pegasus air refuelling boom as seen from the flight deck of a C-5M Super Galaxy assigned to the 60th Air Mobility Command based at Travis Air Force Base, California prior to air refuelling.

US Air National Guard

KC-46A Pegasus 17-46027 departs Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, on 30 July, 2021, after receiving cargo from the 127th Logistics Readiness Squadron.

ARW deliberately sought to build a new culture within its KC-46A squadrons at McConnell by filling the ranks of the 344th ARS with maintainers and aircrew who have different backgrounds. Among its aircrew are pilots who flew a variety of aircraft types that include the Boeing B-52 bomber, the Northrop Grumman E-8 JSTARS battle management and command and control aircraft and the fifth-generation Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter.

Explaining the concept, Lt Col Moores said: “The fear of course was that the brand-new tanker shows up at McConnell, home of a legacy KC-135 community, and the new KC-46A community adopts the ways of the legacy KC-135 community flying the same types of missions. We had to create a culture formed by people with different backgrounds and ways of thinking. That allows us to ask the right questions as we work through the task of evaluating this aeroplane.”

One example cited by Lt Col Moores involved electronic warfare experts assigned to an air refuelling squadron asking questions and making recommendations about how to apply electronic warfare tactics to some of the squadron’s roles. The scenario involved totally different discussions to those conducted by legacy tanker squadron personnel.

When asked what he considered to be the biggest challenges the squadron faced in getting to where it is today, he confirmed that it was “not restrict ourselves in our way of thinking or be content with being a standard legacy tanker. The challenge is to continue looking outside the mission set and ask questions about what else can be accomplished in the future.

“When you get a brand-new aeroplane like this, there’s a lot that comes with training. There were challenges which we had to work through to ensure our programmes meet the requirements.”

troUBLed start

It’s no secret that the KC-46A has had a troubled start to life. Following development problems encountered by Boeing, the US Air Force was presented with a three-year delay to aircraft deliveries and a conditional aircraft acceptance protocol because of deficiencies with components of the jet’s air refuelling system. As of August 2021, six Category I deficiencies remain: two related to the RVS, stiff boom, leaking fuel manifold, cracked air refuelling drain tubes, and isolated incidents of flight management system instability. The Director, Operational Test and Evaluation’s FY2020 Annual Report listed the three primary deficiencies. One, a lack of visual acuity in the camera-driven remote vision system used by the boom operator and caused by the camera and processor failing to make timely adjustments in some environmental conditions. This deficiency has also caused undetected contacts of the boom nozzle with the receiver aircraft. Two, no presentation of high boom radial loads at the air refuelling operator’s station. Three, boom stiffness while refuelling lighter aircraft like the A-10 which has caused the receiver pilot to apply more power to create the force necessary to compress the boom nozzle and maintain the refuelling position. Additional power can cause the aircraft to lunge forward at the point of disconnect with risk of collision and damage.

Boeing and the US Air Force are working on a resolution for each deficiency. Fortunately, the deficiencies, significant as they are, manifest as an impingement to the programme and not a showstopper. Away from the problems, as of 11 August, the US Air Force has conditionally accepted 47 KC-46A aircraft which equip five air refuelling squadrons, one dedicated to training and four assigned to frontline units. These are Air Education and Training Command’s 56th Air Refueling Squadron (ARS) based at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Air Mobility Command’s 344th ARS based at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas; Air Force Reserve Command’s 77th ARS based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina and the 924th ARS, an associate

Night-time air refuelling. A KC-46A Pegasus flown by the 344th Air Refueling Squadron receives fuel from a KC-46A flown by the reserve associate 924th Air Refueling Squadron on 23 April, 2020.