The Ankara Ministry of Defense has launched a program for the purchase of new aircraft for in-flight refueling.
Turkish Defense is currently in talks with the two main competitors in the sector, Airbus and Boeing, specifically with the A330 MRTT and KC-46A Pegasus solutions.
The Turkish Air Force has seven aged Boeing KC-135R acquired from the USAF in the 90s, whose construction dates back between 1957 and 1963.
Despite their venerable age, these KC-135R still represent an important asset for Turkish Defense and for NATO itself.
The Turkish KC-135R have been included in the PACER CRAIG Block 45.1 modernization program managed by the USAF for its Stratotanker in the early years of this decade to allow extending its useful life until the middle of the next decade.
The two solutions offered by the American and European manufacturers have different costs, performance and capabilities; at the moment it is not even known the number of aircraft that the Turk Hava Kuvvetleri wants to acquire and in which configuration (only ventral boom with rigid probe and/or sub-wing pods with flexible basket).
The MRTT, for example, places much emphasis on the multi-role capability that makes it suitable for performing in-flight refueling, long-range personnel and goods transport and medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) tasks; in Europe and Asia-Oceania the Airbus aircraft has been purchased or ordered by important Air Forces that have accumulated thousands of flight hours and experiences on this airplane.
For its part, the Pegasus, despite the problems that have so far afflicted it, can count on the technical and logistical support network of the USAF which, between one stop and the other in deliveries, is set to manage about a hundred specimens, a significantly important number.
