The USAF wants a KC-135 sized refueler
Size as in airframe or capability?
About 5 years ago, I did some work for the multi-national ART group. One basic issue was to compare various tanker aircraft. But we refused to accept manufacturers boasts, so told the national teams to furnish the relevant information for a simple scenario I defined:
Take-off, landing and alternate: 10000 ft balanced field, SL/ISA /Still-air.
Task: Take-off, fly a 4 hr AAR mission, land with 1 hr until tanks dry.
Query: Available offload.
Well, on figures provided by national teams, the KC-767 came in at only 1.1% better than the A310MRTT - and was 12%
worse than the KC-135R. Interestingly, the first thing the spams asked was "Can you make that 12000 ft balanced field?" - to which I said "No!".
And the A330?
A massive
65% better than the KC-767, or 45% better than the KC-135R!
So, are The Messiah and his bubba buddies really going to try and hoodwink the USAF into buying something less capable than the jet it is supposed to replace?
Only In America could such a thing happen, it seems....