McConnell hosts second KC-46 Weapons Systems Council

Colonel Nate Vogel, 22nd Air Refueling Wing commander, greets the KC-46 Weapons Systems Council Oct. 18, 2022, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. McConnell hosted members from Air Mobility Command headquarters along with five other wings from across the Total Force. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Brenden Beezley)

McConnell hosts second KC-46 Weapons Systems Council

Major Mark Hankes, 344th Air Refueling Squadron director of operations, briefs the KC-46 Weapons Council on Air Mobility Command’s Employment Concept Exercise 22-06 Oct. 18, 2022, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. ECE 22-06 was held at Yokota Air Base, Japan, from June 6-12, 2022 and more than 100 Airmen and four Total Force KC-46A Pegasus aircraft worked together to learn how to effectively leverage the KC-46. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Brenden Beezley)

McConnell hosts second KC-46 Weapons Systems Council

Major Luke Williams, 2nd Air Refueling Squadron pilot, Airman 1st Class Austin Cowin, 2nd ARS boom operator and Maj. Jonathan Avera, 344th ARS pilot, fly as part of a mixed crew on a KC-46A Pegasus to improve cohesion and training Oct. 19, 2022, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. The Weapons Systems Council event was the result of months of coordination and planning by the 344th Air Refueling Squadron, to further advance the Air Force’s newest multi-role aircraft. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Class Zachary Willis)

McConnell hosts second KC-46 Weapons Systems Council

A mixed crew from McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., exit a KC-46A Pegasus after flying a training mission Oct. 19, 2022, at McConnell AFB. Aircrews from McConnell AFB, Altus AFB, Oklahoma, and Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H., combined their efforts to plan a Weapons System Council to execute training. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zachary Willis)

McConnell hosts second KC-46 Weapons Systems Council

Published Oct. 24, 2022
By Airman First Class Brenden Beezley
22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. --

The 22^nd Air Refueling Wing (ARW) hosted the second annual KC-46 Weapons Systems Council (WSC) Oct. 18-19, 2022.

The event was hosted by Col. Nate Vogel, 22^ndARW commander, and the KC-46 Weapons Systems Council Chair for Air Mobility Command. The theme of the council was Operational Relevance: Building Enterprise Breadth and Depth.

The WSC hosted members from across the Total Force, to include McConnell’s own 22^nd ARW and 931^st ARW, as well as members from Air Mobility Command headquarters, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center Detachment 5, 97^th Air Mobility Wing (Altus AFB), 305^th AMW (McGuire AFB), 60^th AMW (Travis AFB), 157^th ARW (Pease ANGB) and 916^th ARW (Seymour Johnson).

“The WSC brings together our KC-46 teammates from Active Duty, Guard and Reserve Wings to work together to increase the operational capabilities of the KC-46,” said Lt. Col. Adam Gray, 344^th Air Refueling Squadron commander and event organizer. “The WSC’s goal is to synchronize the field, fostering cooperation and communication among KC-46 units to best allocate our resources to increase the KC-46’s warfighting capabilities.”

The key talking points of this year’s event included a multitude of topics, some of which included KC-46 training, recent Employment Capability Exercise takeaways, and the latest tactical developments in the aircraft.

These topics were briefed throughout the first day by the respective subject matter experts and followed by an open discussion style Q&A. The face-to-face interactions and open discussions gave members of the KC-46 community an opportunity to create new connections and bolster existing ones while allowing collaboration on topics that would prove difficult to discuss over virtual conferences or on an individual basis.

“The KC-46 has had huge wins over the past 15 months. We have gone from being an aircraft that couldn’t be tasked, to a platform that has executed three Employment Concept Exercises around the world and flown a 24.2 hour sortie” said Colonel Vogel.

Activities for the event weren’t limited to ground level, as the council hosted a four-ship, rainbow-crew training flight, utilizing aircrews from the 22^nd ARW, 97^th AMW, 305^th AMW and 157^th ARW, demonstrating current mission capabilities, a look into future implementations of the aircraft, and an opportunity to work alongside members from across the Total Force.

“This KC-46 Weapons Systems Council is about more than just updating and synchronizing, it’s also about our mindset and the culture of the KC-46 community,” said Vogel. “We’re all working to develop the culture we want the KC-46 community to have. That overall culture is both a warfighter culture and a culture of winning. We will move out, innovating and experimenting to close any gaps we have, while communicating along the way. That needs to be our mindset, because we have partners out there who are relying on us to deliver our capabilities to a certain place at a certain time, enabling the Joint Force to carry out its mission. People depend on us, and we will be there.”