ANDREWS AFB, Maryland—Enabling communications between different platforms is a persistent challenge across the Joint Force. The U.S. Air Force believes it has a solution: turn the legacy KC-135 ...

The service owns about 360 KC-135s, plus around three dozen RC-135 and WC-135 variants that are based on the same Boeing-built fuselage. The Stratotanker fleet entered service in 1956, followed by ...

On the plus side, flying the KC-135 is “pretty systematically straightforward because it was designed and built in the late (1940s) and the early (1950s),” Fleck said.

A KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 92nd Air Refueling Wing takes off during exercise Titan Fury 24-2 at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, March 22, 2024.

Flight testing of an autonomous KC-135 Stratotanker may begin next year. Boston’s Merlin Labs, Inc. and the U.S. Air Force’s 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill AFB, Fla., have been […] ...

Marlo Fleck might be the world’s most highly trained gas station attendant. That’s how Fleck, a 37-year-old U.S Air Force Reserve major, jokingly describes her job flying Boeing KC-135 ...

A KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 452nd Air Mobility Wing’s 336th Air Refueling Squadron performs a flyover in Moreno Valley, Calif., May 14, 2020.