Excellent news - as expected ! There was never any doubt in my mind - as a full-career military aviation professional - that $TMPS would get a contract for its ex-Royal Air Force Tristar air-to-air refueling tanker fleet.

As stated in my numerous background posts over the past year, the $TMPS fleet has more fuel off-load capacity and more capability - and hence less maintenance cycles for a given fuel offload - than the Omega mixed fleet of aircraft.

In addition, the ongoing overall US DoD military tanker issues - KC-46A delays, KC-135s coming off-line to go through life extension to remain in service for 90+ years, future of KC-Y and KC-Z yet to be decided, and limited overall USN capability using up the life of F/A-18s in the tanker role - means contract extensions can be expected.

Note that the contract awarded to $TMPS through to 2024 (5 years) is almost a third of the total awarded to Omega - piecemeal year-by-year - in the past 12 years from 2007 to 2013 !