The US Air Force has agreed to pay Boeing $882 million that it was holding back due to problems with a refueling tanker the company was building. But Boeing will be on the hook for an expensive fix for the plane.

The Air Force announced late Thursday that it was paying the $882 million that had previously been withheld under a new policy "to maximize cash flow, where prudent, to combat coronavirus impacts on the industry base." It had withheld the payments due to questions about Boeing's possible noncompliance on 33 KC-46 refueling tankers it had already delivered.

But Boeing and the Air Force also agreed that Boeing will redesign and retrofit a "remote vision system" on the plane at no additional cost to the government. Boeing said the new system is "orders of magnitude better than what was available when the program started." Neither Boeing nor the Air Force gave an estimated cost of the fix.