GE joins KC-46A team - UPI.com CINCINNATI, July 17 (UPI) -- Mission control systems on the KC-46A tanker Boeing is developing for the U.S. Air Force are to be supplied by GE Aviation. GE Aviation said a contract from Boeing for the design, development and production of the systems has a potential value of $180 million. "We are committed to bringing our next-generation technologies to this new tanker platform," said Lorraine Bolsinger, president and chief executive officer of GE Aviation Systems. These systems will enable the aircraft to perform with navigation precision not currently available to the tanker fleet and will help enable efficient operations in our future airspace. The mission control system from GE Aviation will include the flight management system for shorter flight paths and idle-thrust descents. GE's mission control system will also provide the integrated communications management function to support air traffic management data link. Boeing plans to build as many as 179 KC-46A refueling tankers, which will replace KC-135 tankers now in use.