TAMPA, Fla. – New and larger planes are coming soon to Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base.

The base is expecting the arrival of new KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tankers, but lots of work remains before they arrive in the Bay Area.

The Department of Defense’s investment

The backstory:

The Department of Defense plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade facilities at the base so they can handle the new flying tankers. Air Force personnel say that the arrival of the flying tankers and the investment into the base will mean increased activity around the base and more jobs.

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“We’re going to modify the hangers to make them higher so the tails of KC-46s go in,” says U.S. Air Force Col. Ed Szczepanik, the base commander at MacDill. 

Dig deeper:

The new larger tankers are being rolled out by Boeing and going to different bases. 

At MacDill, they’re going to need at least 20 different construction projects to accommodate these new planes, and that’s going to cost around $275 million to start with. 

Impact on the Bay Area

Why you should care:

Officials say it will create jobs and new activity on base.

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It’s going to take a couple of years to get the tankers here. Plans call for 24 of these larger, faster tankers to do air-to-air refueling all over the world really for U.S. warplanes and allies.

These new planes will replace the old, reliable KC-135s that date back to the Eisenhower Administration.

What they’re saying:

Local Congresswoman Kathy Castor is predicting exciting times in the Bay Area.

“New talent and new personnel, they’ll keep a simulator here to train those pilots and the maintainers and their families,” Castor said. “This is a patriotic community that welcomes the new service members, and people want to come to MacDill for that reason.”

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Castor, a Democrat, expects to work in a bipartisan fashion with the new administration to keep things moving at MacDill as they turn the page on a new chapter for the base, with roots that extend back to World War II.

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