Boeing Co. has been awarded a 10-year, $1.1 billion U.S. Air Force contract to continue providing programmed depot maintenance for the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet in Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Missouri.
Boeing will perform the work for more than 200 KC-135 aircraft.
KC-135 maintenance will continue to alternate between Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and Boeing's Support Systems site in San Antonio, a licensed Federal Aviation Administration repair station and the company's largest maintenance and modification center.
The Boeing KC-135 programmed depot maintenance program management office is based in Oklahoma City, near Tinker Air Force Base. About 300 Boeing employees work on the KC-135 PDM program in San Antonio, while 80 Boeing employees in Oklahoma and 75 Boeing employees in Missouri support the program. The company expects to hire about 200 additional employees in San Antonio as more aircraft arrive for maintenance. Since the initial KC-135 programmed depot maintenance contract award in October 1998, Boeing has completed scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on more than 160 aircraft. Conducted every five years, scheduled services include depot-level inspections, repairs, maintenance, modifications, re-painting and supply chain services. Unscheduled maintenance comprises about half of the work performed on each aircraft.
"Using Lean manufacturing and employee involvement initiatives, we have reduced the number of days the aircraft are out of service for maintenance by 19 percent, cutting costs by 15 percent per aircraft," said Pat Finneran, president of Boeing Support Systems. Leveraging 75 years of tanker manufacturing and maintenance expertise, we can commit to a low-risk, cost-effective solution that offers a potential bridge to the KC-X. "
The Texas-based center can house 23 wide-body aircraft at a time in its 1.6 million-square foot facility and includes the world's largest frees-tanding high-bay aircraft hangar. Flight-control repairs will continue to be performed by Sabreliner in Missouri and completed by North American Aviation Services in San Antonio. Sabreliner and NAAS are prime subcontractors for the program.
