Omega Air took delivery of the first of two former Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) KDC-10 aircraft on Monday, November 4, 2019 in San Antonio, Texas. The KDC-10 will join the Omega fleet as the company’s first boom-equipped tanker. Omega owns and operates a small fleet of tanker aircraft, with four different tanker configurations approved to support Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, and has the ability to add numerous additional tanker aircraft as needed.

The new aircraft, T-264, to be registered as N264DE going forward, was manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, modified into a boom-equipped aerial refueling tanker and began to serve as part of the RNLAF fleet in 1995. It is already certified to refuel receptacle aircraft such as the A-10, B-1B, B-52H, C-17, E-3, E-8C, F-15C/D/E, F-16A-D, F-16F, F-16I, F-35A, KC-10, KC-135R/T, RC-135 V, RC-135 S, RC-135 U, and MC-130.

Omega entered into an agreement to purchase two of the RNLAF KDC-10 aircraft this fall. The second of the two purchased KDC-10 tankers will arrive separately, and will be added to the Omega fleet shortly after delivery. The addition of these KDC-10 tankers, along with their boom capability, will give Omega the capability to potentially refuel every operative type of aircraft in U.S. military inventory.

Photo credit: Chris Okula, U.S. Air Force