The Air Force will assign the first of the new KC-46A tanker aircraft to a formal training unit and its first main operating base, staffed by active-duty components, beginning sometime in 2016. An Air Guard unit will receive a second main operating base sometime in 2018, the service announced. The bases will be determined by closeness to those aircraft needing refuelers, airfield and airspace availability, fuels considerations, and capacity, environmental requirements, and costs. Air Mobility Command will survey candidate sites, with the expectation of announcing the viability of the active-duty training unit and operating base in December. Sometime next spring, the command will announce candidates for the Guard operating base.
