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Earlier this year, the United States Air Force
(USAF) selected Boeing to provide the next generation
strategic tanker, the KC-46. Shortly thereafter,
it was announced that Boeing had selected Cobham
to provide the hose and drogue refueling systems.
These systems will be manufactured by Cobham Mission
Equipment at its air to air refueling center of
excellence in Davenport, Iowa. Deliveries on the
engineering phase begin in 2014, with low-rate
initial production starting in 2015.
The USAF plans to acquire 179 KC-46 tankers from
Boeing. Cobham expects to equip each aircraft
with a centerline drogue system. Approximately
30 tankers will also be provided with a pair of
wing-mounted aerial refueling pods.
About Cobham Mission Equipment
Cobham Mission Equipment is a systems integration
business that has been providing innovative solutions
to its customers for over 75 years. The business
is the market leader for air-to-air refueling
(AAR), providing fifth generation ‘nose to
tail’ solutions from the cockpit of the donor
aircraft, to the tail of the receiver platform.
More than 1,000 systems have been delivered for
buddy-buddy refueling, tactical and strategic
tanking for fixed wing aircraft and helicopters,
with Unmanned Air vehicle refueling development
well advanced.
The ‘nose to tail’ AAR capability
is complemented by a comprehensive ‘wingtip
to wingtip’ offering covering a range of
weapons carriage and release equipment, including
missile launchers, cryogenic cooling for missile
seekers, pneumatic missile fin actuation and wing
store carriers, bomb ejection, defensive aids,
chaff and flare systems.
Mission Equipment is also a systems solution
provider in the field of Explosive Ordnance Disposal
(EOD) robot technology, providing a range of unmanned
ground systems and robots serving international
homeland security and military markets, with more
than 700 systems delivered to 55 countries.
Cobham has also supplied refuelliing systems
to the Indian Air Force.
Employing more than 11,000 people on five continents,
the Group has customers and partners in over 100
countries, with annual revenue of some £1.9bn
/ US$3 billion.
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