The Air Force, through its KC-X tanker competition, chose the Boeing-produced Pegasus in 2011 to replace its KC-135 ...

The Air Force may have to keep its aging KC-135 tankers flying beyond their planned 2050 retirement, depending on how many new tankers it buys in coming years and whether a next-generation ...

Aviation itself was barely fifty years old when the KC-135 first flew, meaning that by the time the tanker retires it will have served for two-thirds of the timeline in which airplanes existed.