“A new era officially begins today,” Commissioner Deputy Director Dan O’Connell, who represented the county at the Joint Base’s official arrival ceremony for the first new plane, said in the statement. “These state-of-the-art supertankers will help safeguard our nation, and they will do it based here at our county’s amazing mega-base. It’s a monumental day and I want to thank all those who played a part in bringing these jets to Burlington County, especially our two congressmen, Andy Kim and Donald Norcross.”

Both Kim and Norcross advocated for the timely arrival of the new planes to the base and for on-base improvements in preparation to the jets’ arrival, according to the statement. Norcross was also in office in 2017 when the Air Force selected the Joint Base as one of the first installations where the KC-46A Pegasus would be based.