This latest round of problems is more along the line of "
happens" rather than the piss poor design decisions made early on that resulted in tanker fuel systems that leaked like a sieve and wire design that failed to meet basic wiring requirements.
I tend to agree. The boom is experiencing too high loads when engaged with a large aircraft like the C-17. This is a software problem. The KC-46 boom was derived from the KC-10 boom. The KC-10 boom was controlled by what amounted to a DC-9 analog/mechanical auto pilot. The KC-46 boom replaced that with a digital fly by wire system and its software needs some rework. This is fairly typical of a flight test program and is exactly why a flight test program exists in the first place. Normally the cost and schedule margin that is built into any such program would absorb such rework. Sadly, the early poor management and design flaws have eaten into that margin to the point that there is no longer any margin left. And consequently the program will (almost certainly) no longer meet its schedule milestones. It busted its budget quite some time ago.