U.S. Air Force’s newest refueling tanker made its first mid-air connection with B-2 Spirit

The U.S. Air Force has announced on Wednesday that its newest refueling tanker completed yet another milestone. According to a statement released by the Air Force, the KC-46 Pegasus made its first mid-air connection with the B-2 Spirit in the skies over Edwards Air Force Base, California, recently. The Air Force took first delivery of the KC-46 earlier this year, the Global Reach Combined Test Force and the 418th Flight Test Squadron has been at the forefront of the platform’s developmental testing program. “Testing with the B-2 was a pretty big deal for us,” said Jamie Smith, 418th FLTS lead aerial refueling engineer. “It is the first aircraft that has such a dark paint scheme and it takes up quite a large portion of the Remote Vision System (RVS) screen. We were all really interested to see how the RVS would react with the B-2.” With the connection with the B-52 last summer, and now the B-2, the KC-46 has successfully connected with two of the three bombers in the Air Force inventory. The Global Reach CTF is working with the 419th FLTS, who is in charge of the 412th Test Wing’s bomber fleet.