Details

USAFs Pegasus flies record-breaking missionLt. Col. Greg Van Splunder, Lt. Col. Brandon Stock and Tech. Sgt. Matt Rogers, all of the 157th Air Refueling Wing, Pease Air National Guard Base, New Hampshire Air National Guard, guide their KC-46A Pegasus as it receives fuel from another Pease KC-46A during a 36-hour endurance mission, Nov. 16, 2022. The long-duration sortie took place from Nov. 16-17 and was crewed by active duty and Air National Guard Airmen from Pease, who flew the jet non-stop from New Hampshire, across North America and the Pacific Ocean, around Guam, and back home again. The proof-of-concept operation showcased the ability of the Air Force’s newest tanker to project the force in the modern battle space. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. Timm Huffman)

During the time span of 16 and 17 November 2022, a Boeing KC-46A Pegasus from the 133rd Air Refueling Squadron/157th Air Refueling Wing flew a 36-hour non-stop endurance mission, covering 16,000 miles.

Being based at Pease Air National Guard Base (NH), the Pegasus, with serial number 18-46047, had the honour in performing Air Mobility Command’s longest mission to date.

Earlier, Scramble wrote about the last Pegasus that was delivered to Pease. During the record-breaking mission, the KC-46A refueled Hawaii-based F-22A Raptors over the Pacific and was itself refueled three times.

Pease’s accomplishment of this mission is the third consecutive success proving the KC-46A’s airborne persistence, building on previous 22- and 24-hour missions. On 21 October 2021, Scramble wrote about the Pegasus building its capacities.

A human performance monitor onboard the flight collected quantitative data throughout the mission. This data, along with that collected during the other recent 20+ hour missions, will be used to inform decision making for future norm-breaking employment opportunities.

Also, the information collected during this mission was sent to AMC leadership using the Pegasus’s onboard communications links during the flight. On 24 May 2021, Scramble wrote about the Pegasus's Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

Following its record-breaking sortie, the aircraft landed “Code 1”. The latter means that after the long flight the above mentioned New Hampshire ANG KC-46A was ready to fly with no discrepancies.

Credit photo: USAF

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