Buffeting bedeviled Boeing’s Italian tanker program, but advance work on the KC-46 project has ensured that “things are at a low risk” in moving forward with the pod, she adds.

Dougherty, who has only just begun to publicly discuss the project, says she has been solely focused on executing the early phases of the program. The KC-46 successfully emerged from its preliminary design review in May and program officials are now ensconced in detailed design work. Risk mitigation is, however, a major focus. The key is “just being obsessed with it,” Dougherty says. “That allows you to have the headroom you need early on.”