Photo By Senior Airman Aidan Thompson | U.S. Air Force members walk out to a KC-46A Pegasus aircraft during Exercise Krampus...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. – From Dec. 8-10, 2025, the 305th Air Mobility Wing chaired the KC-46 Weapons Systems Council 25-2, hosting senior leaders, subject matter experts and some of the most experienced aircrew, operations support personnel and maintainers who fly and operate the KC-46A Pegasus aircraft from across the U.S. Air Force. In total, 147 KC-46 Weapons Systems Council attendees joined the 305th AMW and 108th Wing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, flying in from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing, 931st ARW, 60th AMW, 349th AMW, 916th ARW, 157th ARW, 97th AMW, 509th Weapons Squadron, 21st Air Force headquarters, Air Mobility Command headquarters, Air Education and Training Command headquarters and Air Force Reserve Command headquarters.
The KC-46 Weapons Systems Council meets semi-annually to align the KC-46 enterprise’s strategic focus, resolve operational challenges facing the KC-46 community and collaborate to advance innovations and warfighting tactics, techniques and procedures. It is an opportunity to bring KC-46 operators and maintainers at the unit level together with AMC staff, set the strategic priorities for the airframe and then set actionable objectives to advance those priorities over the next three to five years.
“The KC-46 Weapons Systems Council provides a comprehensive mechanism for the enterprise to advance the KC-46 as a mobility platform,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Kathleen Hasson, 305th AMW commander and chair for this KC-46 Weapons Systems Council. “By integrating our training and system performance efforts, we are not only enhancing current readiness but also defining the future capabilities of our force."
This specific KC-46 Weapons Systems Council followed the completion of the largest and longest KC-46 deployment to date, seeing the platform and its personnel deploy together in historic numbers in response to significant contingency operations in U.S. Central Command and across the globe in 2025. This KC-46 Weapons Systems Council capitalized on the success of that deployment, focusing on a theme of “optimizing enterprise warfighting.”
To that end, KC-46 Weapon Systems Council 25-2 applied the lessons learned from that deployment to improve KC-46 agile combat employment training in the Pacific region and prioritized initiatives to enhance the KC-46’s ability to deliver strategic deterrence for U.S. Strategic Command. To be at the forefront of the National Defense Strategy, this KC-46 Weapons Systems Council also prioritized the future of the KC-46 as a key enabler in the long-range kill chain, collaborating on innovations that enable the KC-46 to connect the joint force at the forward edge of the next aerial conflict. The KC-46’s ability to connect and relay information between our joint and coalition partners in a denied and degraded environment is just as critical to future warfighting as providing airborne fuel to joint and coalition aircraft.
Never missing an opportunity to apply these warfighting initiatives in real time, more than 70 participants of the council’s 147 attendees participated in Exercise Krampus, a complex joint exercise the 305th AMW planned and orchestrated concurrently with this KC-46 Weapons Systems Council. The 305th AMW partnered with the 1st Fighter Wing from JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia, integrating seven Total Force KC-46 wings and nine KC-46 aircraft into the 1st FW’s annual combat readiness exercise. Exercise Krampus involved over 80 joint aircraft and was developed to deliver concentrated and coordinated air power in decisive strikes as well as train toward an additional 18 agile combat employment desired learning objectives. The plan had KC-46 aircrew flying in a simulated contested environment, challenging them to deliver F-22 Raptor aircraft and other coalition aircraft to the forward-most part of the fight, and then, not only react to adversary aircraft and threats, but coordinate actions over secure communications and tactical datalink.
“It’s an honor seeing our aircrew, operations support personnel and maintainers plan and accomplish a large-force exercise to this scale, as well as teaming up with the very best in the KC-46 community to plot the future trajectory of the airframe,” said Lt. Col. Paul LaSorda, 32nd Air Refueling Squadron commander. “The team is pushing the KC-46 enterprise to be at the leading edge of the Mobility Air Force, delivering not just airborne fuel to the most forward part of the aerial fight, but connectivity, command and control and battlespace situational awareness for the joint force. When you look around the room at the KC-46 Weapons Systems Council and at the personnel (who) planned Exercise Krampus, there is a unified goal: for the KC-46 to lead the Mobility Air Force and win the next fight.”
| Date Taken: | 12.08.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 01.26.2026 14:45 |
| Story ID: | 556796 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 22 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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