Embraer renews push for US Air Force KC-390 order with ‘Multi-Mission Airlift and Tanker’ pitch
Airframer is positioning the KC-390 as a supplement to the Boeing KC-46, rather than an alternative.
Embraer is renewing its pitch to the US Air Force for a tanker aircraft that prioritises operational flexibility.
The Brazilian airframer is calling the concept, based on the increasingly popular KC-390 multirole twinjet, the “Multi-Mission Airlift and Tanker” (MMAT).
“We want to bring the KC-390 as a new capability to the US Air Force,” says Frederico Lemos, chief commercial officer for Embraer Defense & Security. “We are confident that it will serve well the operational needs of the US Air Force and other services.”
Offering both aerial refuelling and tactical transport, Lemos says the MMAT would allow the USAF to “combine both capabilities in a single platform”.
Embraer has been chasing a US KC-390 order for years, pitching its multi-role jet as a so-called “agile tanker” and highlighting the type’s ability to operate from rough runways and its smaller size, compared to the USAF’s large Boeing KC-135 and KC-46 tankers.
The company has an ongoing partnership with Northrop Grumman to develop a boom system for the KC-390, a nod to the USAF’s preferred fuel transfer method.
The MMAT is the latest iteration of that effort. It comes amid a broader shake-up of the USAF’s tanker modernisation strategy that has included walking back plans for a next-generation stealthy refuelling aircraft.
“The need for tanking capacity is only going up,” says Marc Ayala, Embraer’s head of North American defence programmes and a former USAF Lockheed Martin C-130 pilot.
Ayala calls tankers foundational to all new capabilities the USAF plans to bring online in the coming years, such as autonomous collaborative combat aircraft and the sixth-generation Boeing F-47 air superiority fighter.
Currently, KC-390s can only perform aerial refuelling using a probe-and-drogue system, limiting the roster of aircraft able to receive fuel from the twinjet. Source: Embraer
Rather than replacing existing tankers like KC-46s, Ayala says Embraer is pitching the KC-390 MMAT as a supplemental capability.
“We are not a competitor to the KC-46,” he says. “We see ourselves as an additional platform that supplements the operation, that allows them to access smaller airfields that aren’t accessible by the bigger strategic tankers.”
With a growing fleet of more than 531 aerial refuellers, the US Air Force is far and away the largest tanker operator globally – and an alluring prize for tanker manufacturers.
Breaking into that lucrative market will be no easy feat for Embraer.
The USAF has almost exclusively purchased Boeing-made refuellers for the past 70 years, plus a smaller quantity of M/HC-130J special operations transports configured for tanking.
Embraer has succeeded toe-to-toe with the C-130J in several tactical transport competitions around the world, securing dozens of new KC-390 orders across Europe, Asia and Latin America in recent years.
The company has committed to building a KC-390 production line in the continental US, should an order come through from Washington. It currently assembles all KC-390s at its primary defence manufacturing hub in Gaviao Peixoto, Sao Paulo state.
Ayala notes Embraer’s jet already complies with the US government’s “Buy American” regulations, with 53% of the type’s components coming from US suppliers.
“I don’t think that we’ve really experienced any pushback in that aspect in particular,” he says when asked if the air force’s apparent preference for Boeing tankers represents an impediment. “Their historical record comes from one supplier, but I think new times demand new thinking.”
The loss of a US Air Force E-3 AWACS jet on the ground in Saudi Arabia in March demonstrated the vulnerability of conventional support aircraft, which require large airfields. Source: Facebook
Ayala says the KC-390’s flexibility will be a major asset for frontline commanders during future conflicts – events that could involve large air bases being bombarded by a mix of long-range cruise missiles, fast-moving ballistic missiles and swarms of one-way attack drones.
“When the big strategic bases are not available, the smaller platforms will be the ones that you’ll be left with,” he notes. “That’s really the strength of the 390 – its ability to get into those smaller fields and potentially land on austere runways, potentially things that aren’t runways at all.”
“When you have options, you can do a lot,” Ayala adds.
The vulnerability of conventional commercial-derivative tankers was on display earlier this year, when five US KC-135s were damaged at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia by a long-range Iranian strike.
One of the USAF’s highly strategic Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control jets was hit on the ground and destroyed by a separate Iranian strike, which also damaged multiple KC-135s.
Embraer hopes the growing roster of US partners and allies operating KC-390s will help endear it to American counterparts.
The aircraft is now in service with, or ordered by, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, South Korea, Uzbekistan, the UAE, Brazil and Colombia.
Embraer formally delivered the first Uzbek C-390 on 25 September, marking the start of operations in Central Asia.
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