BAE Systems says it has completed its 1,000th repair for the US Air Force’s KC-135 Stratotanker fleet at its facility in Endicott, New York, according to a company press release dated November 6, 2026. The release says the milestone was reached “recently” and gives no exact date.

What BAE says it repairs

  • BAE maintains the KC-135’s Fuel Management Advisory Computer (FMAC) and Integrated Fuel Management Panel (IFMP), including legacy hardware maintenance to prevent obsolescence.
  • BAE describes itself as the sole provider of the tanker’s safety-critical Fuel Management System (FMS).
  • The release does not say which component was involved in the 1,000th repair.

Length of support

The release refers to a “decades-long” role and to keeping the fleet ready for “more than 40 years.” That phrase is ambiguous, since it could refer either to BAE’s KC-135 support or to the fleet’s service, and the release gives no start year for BAE’s KC-135 work. Separately, BAE cites 40 years of experience in safety-critical aeronautic systems.

The upgrade

  • BAE says it developed a Fuel Management System upgrade with line-replaceable units, modules that maintenance crews can replace individually, which it says exceed future mean-time-between-failure requirements. The release gives no figures.
  • The upgrade has an open architecture that BAE says complies with the “U.S. Air Force Aviation Maintenance System—Global Requirements Assurance framework,” giving more flexibility for future upgrades and repairs. BAE says the upgrades help aircraft operate in “contested airspaces.”
  • The release gives no test, certification or fielding status or timeline for the upgrade.

What was said

Corson Witham, BAE’s program manager for sustainment, said: “Reaching this milestone for the KC-135 is a testament to our team’s technical expertise.” He also credited the strength of the system’s design and said that maintaining the reliability of these critical flight systems supports the Air Force’s operational readiness goals.

What the release does not include

The release contains no statement from the Air Force and no confirmation of the repair count. It gives no fleet size, contract reference, repair rate or dollar value, and all quotations come from BAE’s own program manager.

Sources and notes

This post is based on BAE Systems’ press release, distributed by PR Newswire from Endicott, New York on November 6, 2026. The 1,000-repair count, the sole-provider description and the reliability claims are BAE’s own, and Lens did not contact BAE or the Air Force.

Image: a KC-135R Stratotanker in flight over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge near Tampa, Florida, by Master Sgt. Keith Reed via Wikimedia Commons, released into the public domain by the U.S. Air Force; cropped. Illustrative photo; it does not show BAE’s facility or its repairs.