The top civilian official in the US Air Force says he is not currently exploring any acquisition of the Embraer KC-390 Millennium multi-role tanker transport.
At the 2026 Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Denver, Colorado, FlightGlobal asked secretary of the air force Troy Meink about his plans for recapitalising the USAF’s ageing fleet of Boeing KC-135s and if he sees a potential role for the Embraer twinjet.
“I haven’t really looked into that,” Meink said of the KC-390.
Instead, Meink gave a strong endorsement of the Boeing KC-46 Pegasus, which the air force selected in 2011 to replace the ageing fleet of Cold War-era KC-135 Stratotankers.
“KC-46 is a great airplane,” Meink says, noting the 767-derivative has been actively supporting US combat operations around the world.
Boeing has struggled for years with deficiencies on the KC-46 programme, including issues with the fuel transfer boom, the Remote Vision System that controls the boom, cargo load management software and physical manufacturing defects.
“There are some challenges and they’re working through them,” Meink says.
In 2025, the USAF doubled down on the KC-46, expanding its planned orders from 179 to a total potential fleet of 263 jets.
Meink’s apparent brush-off of the KC-390 comes less than a week after Embraer and Northrop announced a new partnership with great fanfare to develop a fuel transfer boom for the KC-390, which currently uses wing-mounted pods to conduct in-flight refuelling via a probe-and-drogue system.
While the drogue method is used by the US Navy and Marine Corps, the US Air Force exclusively uses boom tankers for topping off its fighters, bombers and transport.
FlightGlobal understands that Embraer met with air force officials in Denver to discuss the company’s new KC-390 offering. That meeting was described as encouraging, with positive feedback from the air force on the new boom partnership
Although Embraer and Northrop have not said their KC-390 boom initiative is exclusively targeting the US Air Force, the pair are clearly hoping to score an order from the American service to accelerate the Millennium’s success in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Eleven countries have committed to fielding the jet.
“The KC-390 is an operationally proven and cost-effective platform that could quickly be added to the US Air Force inventory,” said the chief executive of Embraer Defense & Security, Bosco da Costa Junior, on 20 February.
As the largest global operator of refuelling aircraft, the USAF represents a massive prize for any tanker manufacturer.
However, at an event in Melbourne, Florida announcing the partnership, da Costa and his Northrop counterpart said they are not banking on orders from the USAF to support the KC-390 boom integration project, which will require substantial internal investment.
“I believe there’s going to be a lot of international demand for this,” said Tom Jones, president of Northrop’s aeronautics division.
“We’re listening to our customers, particularly in allied nations who seek greater operational autonomy and efficiency,” he added.
Several globally prolific fighter types all take on fuel via a boom, including the Lockheed Martin F-35A, Boeing F-15 series and Lockheed F-16,
The F-16 is the world’s most numerous fighter aircraft, with more than 2,000 examples in service globally, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium.
There are just under 900 F-15s in service globally, while Lockheed has shipped more than 1,300 F-35s – although some of these are the B- and C-variants which use the probe-and-drogue refuelling system
Adding a boom refuelling option to the KC-390 would open up those fleet operators as potential customers for Embraer, significantly expanding the potential base for new orders.
Embraer has sought to break into the US market for several years, previously teaming with L3Harris to offer a so-called “agile tanker” variant of the KC-390 to the US Air Force. That effort also included a proposed boom option for the Brazilian jet
American giant Boeing has long dominated US tanker orders, first with KC-135 and now with the KC-46.
There are currently 376 KC-135s in USAF service alongside 95 KC-46s, with the Pegasus fleet continuing to expand.
The service also operates a smaller fleet of 61 Lockheed Martin MC-130J special operations transports, which can provide aerial refuelling to rotary-wing aircraft.
