Weapons survivability tests conducted on KC-46

The KC-46 aerial tanker being developed for the U.S. military by Boeing has undergone weapons survivability testing by the U.S. Navy.

The tests at the Weapons Survivability Lab, supported by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division -- or NAWCWD -- took place in April at China Lake, Calif., the Navy said.

The tests, outlined by the KC-46 Live Fire Test and Evaluation Program, will be used to assess KC-46 system-level survivability in high-fidelity, operational environments against ballistic and advanced threats.

NAWCWD said the survivability tests were the most complex ever conducted at the lab.

"There were over 330 channels collecting raw data, 10 high-speed cameras recording 10,000 to 100,000 frames-per-second and 30 real-time video feeds," said Eric Brickson, KC-46 LFT&E engineer. "We had a very extensive list of requirements and NAWCWD met them all."

"Excellent tests," said KC-46 lead engineer Scott Wacker, weapons survivability expert. "These have never been done before, so I'm happy to say that we met all our objectives. I believe that we are advancing the state of the art in understanding vulnerability in aircraft."

The KC-46 Pegasus is a refueling and transport aircraft based on Boeing's 767 airliner. The U.S. Air Force selected it in 2011 to replace about one-third of aging KC-135 tankers and plans to acquire 179 of the planes.