New Defense Plant to Take Years

A Lockheed Martin LMXT tanker aircraft refuels another plane using its aerial boom system.

Plans for Lockheed Martin and Airbus to build an aerial refueling boom system in western Arkansas are, dare we say it, in a holding pattern as the U.S. Air Force reconsiders its next generation of strategic tanker aircraft.

The refueling boom system manufacturing plans, announced with some political fanfare last May, involve the LMXT, an Airbus tanker designed as part of the Air Force’s long-term KC-Y strategic tanker program.

The complication is that the service has reconsidered how to replace its strategic tanker fleet and moved toward buying 75 Boeing KC-46A jets as a bridge to “recapitalizing” its aging tanker fleet.

Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter told Breaking Defense magazine last month that plans set in 2009-2010 are “no longer fit for the purpose of meeting the aerial refueling needs” of the future.

In January, the Air Force began reviewing its Next-Generation Air Refueling System plans, with an eye to using the 75 new KC-46A jets to get it to an “initial increment” of the NGAS in the mid-2030s.

While the news release from May mentioned no specific timeline, it looks as if any new plant in west Arkansas will be years in the making.

Stephanie Stinn of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics told Arkansas Business in a statement that the company is listening to the Air Force to understand its recapitalization plans to ensure that the Airbus LMXT “is aligned with requirements for a pending draft RFP.”

She said Lockheed, which has had a manufacturing presence in Camden since 1978, is still committed “to providing the U.S. Air Force with the most advanced strategic tanker that delivers value and an unmatched edge when facing near peer threats such as China.”

She referred specific inquiries about tanker acquisition plans to the Air Force.

While awaiting the Air Force RFP, Lockheed Martin is working with suppliers and industry partners across the country to “finalize production plans for the LMXT so it will be ready to support the U.S. Air Force by 2030.

“We announced news last year that Airbus would manufacture the LMXT’s boom in western Arkansas and remain committed to this decision as it ensures the LMXT tanker is built in America, by Americans, for Americans,” Stinn said.