Oklahoma-based Field Aerospace has completed – one year ahead of schedule – the flight-deck modernisation of the Turkish air force’s fleet of seven Boeing KC-135 tankers.

Conducted through the USA’s Foreign Military Sales process, the Block 45 upgrade saw Field address obsolescence issues with the legacy type.

KC 135-c-Field Aerospace

Source: Field Aerospace

An initial aircraft was inducted at Field’s Oklahoma City facility in January 2021 and work ran until December last year; the contract covered the period to 28 January 2024.

Changes under the upgrade include the installation of a new autopilot system, radio altimeter and the replacement of analogue gauges with digital alternatives.

Field had previously completed the prototype Block 45 modification on two US Air Force (USAF) KC-135s and installed the modification on the first 15 low-rate initial production aircraft.

“Our team applied lessons learned from our prior experience performing this modification on the USAF KC-135 fleet to the Turkish KC-135 programme,” says Ed Williams, Field Aerospace programme manager.

Dominic Perry is deputy editor of Flight International but also contributes extensively to flightglobal.com. Although specialising in the coverage of the helicopter industry, he has written on most topics in aerospace – be they commercial, defence or business aviation. In addition, there has been an increasing focus on the decarbonisation of the industry and zero-emission flight initiatives.View full Profile

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