This is all fascinating stuff. For a long time ALL Air Force refueling capabilities were in the Air Guard, and possibly some Reserve. We fought both Iraq wars with ANG/reserve capabilities refueling the jets flying.
The new KC-46 is supposed to go to Air Force units. ?What or where would those units come from, with so much of the refueling ability NOT in the Air Force. Presumably it means the formation of new units dedicated to air refueling. With 175 airframes to be delivered, that would mean 21 new squadrons of 8 planes each. But a questioning mind would ask where the funding for these “new units” would come from. Clearly the current budget does not have new unit creation, at least not on the scale envisioned by the Air Force. ?So is the plan to begin transitioning Guard units to the KC-46. The now venerable KC-10 seemed to end up in Guard units awful quickly. THIS system, OTOH, would require not only that the crew chiefs learn a new A/C maintenance schedules and foilables but also retraining all the boomers, as their skills were strictly visual; the camera system will take some getting accustoming to, just like using a fiber optic scope does in medicine.
I am also wondering why the change. The previous refueling process worked fine. Boomers were accustomed to seeing the plane up close and personal. Yes, it’s quite a sight to refuel a B-52, it being so large, but the fighters were right up there in your window. The refer looked a lot farther away to the fighter jock than the other way around. I’ve been on both ends of that to know (including a B-52 refueling from the B-52 POV). Sometimes the enemy of good is better. ?Are we really getting some significant benefit from the 46 or is it just the AF looking for a new platform to waste money on.