Meanwhile the KC-45A, which had been the KC-30A under the KC-X competition, was cancelled due to whining complaints in the US, which led to the Australian KC-30B being retitled KC-30A.
The KC-X competition was then biased sufficiently for ol' Bubba Boeing to win it with the KC-46A developed from the paper plane Boeing NewGen Tanker:
The KC-46A won't fly until 2015 at the earliest and ol' Bubba then has to deliver 18 mission ready aircraft before 2017. Unlike the KC-767I or KC-767J which are based on the Boeing 767-200ER, the KC-46A 'Frankentanker' is a hybrid which combines the -200ER fuselage, -300F wing, gear, cargo door and floor, -400ER flaps, uprated engines, a modified KC-10A boom and Boeing 787 cockpit with additional military equipment:
The signature winglets of the Boeing NewGen Tanker have now been deleted on the KC-46A. Unsurprisingly, the KC-46A has already run up significant cost overruns, despite the NewGen Tanker being hyped as 'Combat Ready, Lowest Total Cost, American made'. Of course it was none of these as it never actually existed!
Whilst Boeing was faffing about with its Frankentanker, Israeli Aerospace Industries quietly delivered a Boeing 767MMTT tanker transport to Colombia; this was based on the B767-200ER and has wing AAR pods only.
The other company bidding for the RAF's FSTA requirement, TTSC, proposed using secondhand ex-ba B767-200ERs with up to 3 hoses, no additional fuel tanks and Jaguar-like take-off performance at MTOW:
Although unlike other Boeing 767 tankers, at least it would have had proper passenger seats and windows, whereas even the KC-46A will only have the usual Rendition Class USAF passenger accommodation.....
