USAF should buy newly designed air refuelers to meet China threat: Report

A U.S. Air Force KC-46 Pegasus, right, refuels a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon, center, assigned to the 80th Fighter Squadron, over the Indo-Pacific, Oct. 22, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Karrla Parra)

WASHINGTON — The US Air Force requires a slew of investments to shore up its air refueling fleet, from targeted infrastructure spending to designing a new tanker with greater range and fuel offload capacity, according to a think tank report.

Published today, the report by Hudson Institute experts Timothy Walton and Shane Dennin — titled Resilient Reach: Redesigning Aerial Refueling for Contested Global Operations — offers a comprehensive view of the Air Force’s air refueling capacity. The service currently relies on “vulnerable forward bases” and tankers with insufficient range, increasing the risk of defeat in a direct conflict with China, the report says.

Among its findings, the report notes that the Boeing-built KC-46 Pegasus — which is slowly replacing the Air Force’s Eisenhower-era KC-135 Stratotanker — “lacks the range, offload and survivability” to prevail in a conflict with Beijing. To retain the Air Force’s aerial refueling advantage, the report recommends three key steps for future tanker planning:

Develop and field a medium-sized tanker with greater range and fuel capacity, such as a blended-wing body (BWB) aircraft. Assuming a fleet of 510 tankers, acquiring 260 KC-46s and 250 BWB refuelers could cost an estimated $397.6 billion across R&D, procurement and sustainment — about $15.5 billion less than simply buying only the same number of Pegasus aircraft, according to the report.

Strengthen airfield resilience with infrastructure investments and improved defenses, along with steps like adopting greater distributed fuel storage. The authors estimate these measures could cumulatively cost approximately $35.5 billion.

Equip tankers with new mission systems to boost connectivity, improve operations and aid self-defense. The report estimates these upgrades could cost roughly $13 billion, including $8 billion necessary to outfit a fleet of 260 KC-46s.

Following what military officials have described as the platform’s success in recent combat operations like Epic Fury, “[t]here’s a temptation for the Air Force to continue buying KC-46s,” Walton told Breaking Defense in an interview ahead of the report’s release. Still, “there’s clearly a need for a new approach that goes beyond what the KC-46 provides.”

The Air Force last year unveiled plans to order up to 75 additional KC-46s while the service studies options for a next-gen tanker. Walton reasoned that 75 aircraft “should be the upper limit of that buy” and argued that the service should prioritize developing a new tanker. Depending on future budget constraints, that approach could require trade-offs such as trimming KC-46 procurement.

The report outlines five different approaches to the Air Force’s tanker fleet, ranging from purchasing only Pegasus aircraft to fielding a mix of KC-46s, KC-135s and specialized, low-observable refuelers designed to offload fuel closer to the fight. Though each approach has its own strengths, Walton highlighted fielding a medium-sized BWB aircraft as a desirable and “fiscally achievable plan” — adding that such an aircraft could enter service around 2032.

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The Air Force is funding a BWB demonstrator aircraft designed by startup JetZero, which military officials have described as a potential candidate for future mobility missions. Walton said the report used a “representative” BWB model, and that while JetZero’s aircraft may fit the bill, other vendors could offer viable designs.

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Iranian strikes that have destroyed US aircraft on the ground also underscore the need for more resilient base infrastructure, including hardened fuel storage and aircraft shelters, Walton said. Top military brass have championed passive and active defenses at airfields, but not everyone agrees with measures to build more hardened aircraft shelters, including Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach .

“It’s probably most contentious to assert that tanker aircraft should also be under consideration for hardened aircraft shelters, or at least hangars that can cover them from observation,” Walton said. “But I think in light of what we’ve seen from Operation Epic Fury, it’s necessary.”

Walton argued that the Air Force could fund more resilient infrastructure through existing plans to increase spending on facilities, especially if those funding levels are sustained. As large aircraft that serve a critical need, refueling assets are often seen as high-priority targets, though Walton noted that hardened shelters have generally been built for fighters.

“It’s not necessarily more money, but it’s prioritizing the amount of money in the out-years,” he said.

The Air Force is incrementally equipping its mobility aircraft with modern communications equipment and exploring self-defense systems that could defeat enemy attacks. But the service has previously failed to meet ambitious targets for fleet connectivity, and Walton acknowledged that limited resources could constrain the report’s recommendations for new mission systems, including communications, self-defense and autonomy technologies.

“Moving forward, the Air Force will have to weigh its available budget to spend” on new mission systems alongside competing priorities, he said, like resilient infrastructure and fielding a clean-sheet tanker. “And that might lead to some hard decisions.”

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2023年10月22日，一架美国空军KC-46“飞马”加油机（右）在印太地区上空为隶属于第80战斗机中队的美国空军F-16“战隼”战斗机（中）进行空中加油。（美国空军高级飞行员卡拉·帕拉摄）

华盛顿——据一家智库报告称，美国空军需要大量投资来加强其空中加油机队，从有针对性的基础设施支出到设计航程更远、燃油卸载能力更强的新型加油机。

今天发布的这份由哈德逊研究所专家蒂莫西·沃尔顿和肖恩·丹宁撰写的报告——题为《韧性覆盖：重新设计应对全球对抗的空中加油能力》——全面分析了美国空军的空中加油能力。报告指出，空军目前依赖“脆弱的前沿基地”和航程不足的加油机，这增加了在与中国的直接冲突中战败的风险。

报告指出，波音公司制造的KC-46“飞马”加油机——正在逐步取代空军艾森豪威尔时代的KC-135“同温层加油机”——“航程、空投能力和生存能力不足”，难以在与北京的冲突中取胜。为了保持空军的空中加油优势，报告建议在未来的加油机规划中采取以下三个关键步骤：

研发并部署航程更远、燃油容量更大的中型加油机，例如翼身混合式（BWB）飞机。报告指出，假设机队规模为510架加油机，采购260架KC-46和250架翼身混合式加油机，研发、采购和维护总成本预计为3976亿美元——比直接采购相同数量的“飞马”加油机节省约155亿美元。

通过基础设施投资和加强防御，以及采取诸如扩大分布式燃料储存等措施，来增强机场的韧性。作者估计，这些措施累计成本约为355亿美元。

为加油机配备新型任务系统，以增强互联互通、改进作战行动并辅助自卫。报告估计，这些升级改造的总成本约为130亿美元，其中包括为260架KC-46加油机配备新系统所需的80亿美元。

鉴于军方官员称该平台在近期诸如“史诗狂怒”等作战行动中取得了成功，沃尔顿在报告发布前接受《防务新闻》采访时表示：“空军很可能会继续采购KC-46。” 然而，“显然，我们需要一种超越KC-46所能提供能力的新方法。”

去年，美国空军公布了增购至多75架KC-46加油机的计划，同时该军种也在研究下一代加油机的方案。沃尔顿认为，75架飞机“应该是采购数量的上限”，并主张空军应优先研发新型加油机。根据未来的预算限制，这种做法可能需要做出一些权衡，例如削减KC-46的采购数量。

该报告概述了空军加油机队的五种不同方案，从仅采购“飞马”加油机到部署KC-46、KC-135以及专为更靠近战区加油而设计的低可探测性专用加油机。尽管每种方案各有优势，但沃尔顿强调，部署中型翼身加油机是一个理想且“财政上可行的方案”，并补充说，这种飞机有望在2032年左右投入使用。

动力源自链轮：正是传动装置赋予履带车辆控制能力。

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美国空军正在资助初创公司JetZero设计一款翼身飞行器（BWB）演示机，军方官员称其有望成为未来机动任务的候选机型。沃尔顿表示，该报道使用的是“具有代表性”的翼身飞行器模型，虽然JetZero的飞机可能符合要求，但其他供应商也可能提供可行的设计方案。

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沃尔顿表示，伊朗对美军地面飞机的袭击也凸显了增强基地基础设施韧性的必要性，包括加固的燃料储存设施和飞机掩体。高级军官一直倡导在机场部署被动和主动防御系统，但并非所有人都赞同建造更多加固型飞机掩体的措施，其中包括空军参谋长肯·威尔斯巴赫将军。

沃尔顿说：“或许最具争议的观点是，加油机也应该考虑配备加固的飞机掩体，或者至少是能够遮蔽它们、使其免受侦察的机库。但我认为，鉴于我们在‘史诗狂怒行动’中所看到的，这是必要的。”

沃尔顿认为，空军可以通过现有的增加设施支出计划来资助更具韧性的基础设施建设，尤其是在这些资金水平能够持续的情况下。由于大型飞机承担着至关重要的需求，加油设施通常被视为高优先级目标，不过沃尔顿指出，加固的加油掩体通常是为战斗机建造的。

“这不一定意味着要投入更多资金，而是要优先考虑未来几年的资金投入，”他说。

空军正逐步为其机动飞机配备现代化通信设备，并探索能够抵御敌方攻击的自卫系统。但空军此前未能实现雄心勃勃的机队互联互通目标，沃尔顿也承认，资源有限可能会制约报告中关于新型任务系统（包括通信、自卫和自主技术）的建议。

他表示，“展望未来，空军必须权衡可用于新任务系统的可用预算，以及其他优先事项，例如建设具有韧性的基础设施和部署全新设计的加油机。这可能会导致一些艰难的抉择。”

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