Boeing KC-46A tankers - General discussion

“We require your attention and improved focus on the KC-46” tanker, General David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, warned in a letter four days before Dave Calhoun took over as chief executive officer of the company. “The Air Force continues to accept deliveries of a tanker incapable of performing its primary operational mission.”

“As one of your largest military customers, we also rely on a relationship of trust and confidence in not only Boeing’s products” but also the long-term sustainment effort needed for equipment that “our warfighters require,” Goldfein said in the Jan. 9 letter made available to Bloomberg News.

Larry Chambers, a spokesman for Chicago-based Boeing, declined to comment on the meeting with Goldfein or the letter. “Boeing is fully committed to addressing the Air Force concerns with the KC-46 program and devoting resources required to make the KC-46 fully mission capable,” he said.

Despite agreement on a plan to repair the Remote Vision System, Goldfein said in the letter, “to date, progress has been unsatisfactory. More than a year has elapsed and Boeing has yet to provide” a design “that instills confidence in the way forward.”

“None of the timelines” in the agreement “has been met,” he said, “and Boeing’s latest proposal slips delivery of the final fix to the warfighter by over two years,” which he called unacceptable.