U.S. Air Force Revives NGAS Market Survey With Airframe Query

The U.S. Air Force is seeking industry input on the airframe for the Next Generation Air Refueling System (NGAS) after reimagining the original concept championed by former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall last year.

The request for information (RFI) published on Aug. 15 for the NGAS airframe provides no details about the Air Force’s current thinking for a new tanker. An attachment with details is stamped “controlled unclassified information,” which restricts the release to a short list of interested parties.

But the RFI comes four months after Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, the director of Force Design, Integration and Wargaming for Air Force Futures, talked about moving the NGAS concept to a family of systems approach. Before leaving office last year, Kendall promoted a different concept based on a large, stealthy, purpose-built tanker.

The RFI for the airframe also is the latest in a series that the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center released on the NGAS concept during the analysis of alternatives phase.

The Air Force’s first NGAS-related RFI appeared on March 2, 2023, asking industry to submit concepts for operating a futuristic tanker in contested scenarios. That was followed by RFIs for the propulsion system in May 2024 and for the mission systems last November.

The NGAS program is intended to enter development as production of the Boeing KC-46 winds down and procurement begins for a potential follow-on tanker derived from a commercial airliner. The new aircraft replaces the previously retired McDonnell-Douglas KC-10 and still-operating Boeing KC-135 tankers.