U.S. and Brazil Companies Launch KC-390 Autonomous Boom Tanker Bid for U.S. Air Force.

Embraer and Northrop Grumman, on February 19, 2026, announced a joint effort to equip the KC-390 Millennium with an advanced autonomous refueling boom and enhanced mission systems aimed at the U.S. Air Force and allied operators. The move positions the medium jet transport as a next-generation tanker for Agile Combat Employment, where dispersed basing and survivable logistics are central to U.S. warfighting strategy.

Embraer and Northrop Grumman have put the KC-390 Millennium at the center of a new push to reshape allied air mobility, confirming on February 19, 2026, a joint effort aimed at the U.S. Air Force and partner nations. The announcement is not a routine teaming note. It reads like a calculated bid to turn a proven medium jet transport into a next-generation tanker-transport designed for Agile Combat Employment (ACE), where dispersed basing, rapid movement, and resilience under threat are becoming as decisive as the combat aircraft themselves. In practical terms, the two companies are betting that the next air mobility winner will be defined by survivability, autonomy, and integration speed, not simply by payload charts.
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The KC-390 Millennium is a fast twin-jet transport and tanker carrying up to 26 tons, able to operate from austere runways and rapidly switch between cargo, airdrop, paratroop, and medevac roles, with hose-and-drogue in-flight refueling (Picture source: Embraer).

The partnership’s technical headline is the pursuit of an advanced autonomous aerial refueling boom, paired with broader upgrades in communications, situational awareness, survivability, and adaptable mission systems. Today’s boom refueling still depends heavily on human-in-the-loop control, precise formation flying, and significant operator workload, especially in poor weather, turbulence, or low-visibility night conditions. A credible autonomous boom architecture changes the equation by shifting contact geometry, closure management, and stabilization logic toward sensors and software, with the human operator moving toward supervisory control rather than constant micro-corrections. That is not just a convenience feature: it has direct tactical payoff in faster hookups, fewer disconnect events, and safer operations when crews are fatigued or under threat.

For the U.S. Air Force, boom capability also solves a compatibility reality. Many U.S. receivers, especially fast jets and some special mission aircraft, are optimized for boom refueling rather than hose-and-drogue. A KC-390 variant that can credibly provide boom refueling begins to look like a true bridge platform, not simply a coalition tanker for probe-equipped aircraft. If the boom becomes autonomous or semi-autonomous in a meaningful way, the platform starts to resemble a refueling system rather than an airframe with a refueling kit. That distinction matters when procurement officials look for measurable reductions in training burden, mishap risk, and crew specialization.

The baseline aircraft gives the concept a strong starting point: the KC-390 is a twin-jet tactical airlifter built for tempo, with a cruise speed around Mach 0.80 and payload capacity up to 26 metric tons. Its cargo hold is sized for heavy loads and rapid reconfiguration, supporting the practical mission set that dominates real tasking: palletized cargo, personnel transport, paratroop drops, precision airdrop, and aeromedical evacuation at scale, including stretcher-heavy configurations that have been demonstrated with modular medical equipment. The propulsion choice, IAE V2500-class engines in the roughly 31,000 lb thrust range, leans on commercial lineage for sustainment economics while delivering the climb and cruise performance that turboprop rivals cannot match over long legs.

In a contested theater, sortie generation is a weapon. A medium jet transport that can move people, spares, and fuel faster between dispersed nodes can compress timelines and reduce the number of aircraft needed to sustain a force. It also changes the risk math: fewer hours exposed, fewer forward ground turns, and a higher chance of beating an adversary’s targeting cycle. This is why the press release’s emphasis on “advanced air mobility” and closing a capability gap should be read as a critique of legacy fleet structure, not a vague modernization slogan.

The concept assumes aircraft will operate from multiple locations, often with limited infrastructure, to complicate enemy targeting and preserve combat power after the first strikes. In that world, the question is not whether a tanker can carry the most fuel. The question is whether a tanker can keep moving, keep refueling, and keep supporting rapid repositioning when runways are short, services are thin, and threat warning is constant. Embraer has consistently positioned the KC-390 for rugged operations, including performance from semi-prepared or damaged surfaces under established military criteria. That matters because distributed basing is only viable if the logistics aircraft can follow the fighters and survive the same environment.

In its current tanker configuration, the KC-390 relies on hose-and-drogue refueling via wing-mounted pods, with transfer rates cited up to 400 U.S. gallons per minute per pod, and it can use auxiliary tanks to tailor fuel offload and mission radius. The aircraft is also designed to act as a receiver, enabling tanker-to-tanker refueling that can extend ferry ranges and support long repositioning moves without relying on fixed hubs. This is the quiet enabler for coalition operations: when smaller air forces can refuel each other and sustain movement with fewer dependencies, the entire allied force becomes harder to predict and harder to paralyze.

Northrop Grumman’s role is best understood as the “combat systems brain” and integration pathway into U.S. acquisition. Embraer brings the mature airframe, production experience, and a platform already validated in operational service. Northrop Grumman brings large-scale systems integration, mission architecture discipline, and the credibility of a major U.S. prime that routinely works on classified survivability, comms, and sensor integration. If the joint roadmap truly includes enhanced situational awareness and survivability options, those improvements typically translate into better threat warning, more resilient connectivity, and mission-system modularity that lets operators tailor the aircraft to contested logistics instead of permissive airlift.

A cost-effective multi-mission platform that can move cargo and provide refueling gives smaller allied nations a form of operational sovereignty. It lets them sustain air operations, reinforce frontline units, and support dispersed basing without depending entirely on large U.S. tanker fleets that may be prioritized elsewhere in a crisis. In NATO terms, it strengthens the alliance’s ability to move as a network, with more nodes able to generate fuel and lift at the tactical edge rather than waiting for strategic assets to arrive.

This is also a market challenge: the KC-390 was designed to contest the medium airlifter space long associated with the C-130 family, and a boom-capable variant extends the contest into the tanker domain where U.S. designs have traditionally set the standard. That is why the autonomous boom matters beyond engineering prestige. It is a competitive wedge that aims directly at U.S. operational norms and receiver compatibility, the two barriers that most often keep foreign-designed airframes outside the American inventory.

The growing list of operators adds momentum. The KC-390 is in service with Brazil and has entered operational use in Portugal, with Hungary also operating the type following deliveries and fleet activation milestones. Beyond current operators, a widening set of European and international customers has selected the aircraft, including the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Slovakia, Lithuania, the Republic of Korea, and Uzbekistan. Each new operator increases the coalition argument: common training pipelines, pooled spares, cross-servicing options, and shared tactics for dispersed logistics and refueling.

Finally, there is an implicit U.S. industrial logic behind the promise that the aircraft could be quickly added to the U.S. Air Force inventory. Speed in U.S. procurement is rarely only about performance. It is about integration risk, certification credibility, and industrial participation that fit domestic political constraints. Embraer’s established U.S. defense footprint offers a pathway for American assembly or major subsystem work if a program moves from concept to contract. If that happens, the partnership will not look like a foreign aircraft trying to enter the U.S. market. It will look like a new air mobility ecosystem built to support distributed operations, with an autonomous boom as the signature capability that turns logistics into a tactical advantage.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.