Refueling and Global Air Power by Adrian Lang

"Damn it! What a way to fly into a war--unarmed and out of gas!" -- Tora! Tora! Tora!

There is little debate that when it comes to air superiority, the forces that can stay in the battle longest usually win. Yet when one thinks of modern-day air warfare, images of B-52 bombers with their massive payloads of ordnance, fighter jets with missiles hanging on the rails, and sleek stealth aircraft designed to slip past enemy defenses are conjured up. The image of a flying gas station doesn’t readily come to mind.

But modern-day air warfare requires the use of air-air refueling to project air superiority. Fighters flying Combat Air Patrol (CAP) making trans-oceanic deployments may remain aloft for six or more hours. During the Libyan conflict, Operation Odyssey Dawn, B-2 stealth bombers launched from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, dropped their satellite guided munitions over Libya and then flew directly back. Missions in Iraq sometimes saw B-2s log 30 to 44-hour missions. These were all made possible because of in-flight refueling.

Early Days

Modern Day Tankers

Due to aircraft design, tankers can be equipped with two different systems to transfer fuel: the "Probe and Drogue" and the "Flying Boom." The tanker portion of "probe and drogue" system consists of a retractable hose that extends from the tanker, usually from wing-mounted pods. On the end of the hose, the drogue, or basket as it is more commonly referred to, stabilizes the hose and houses the connection valve. An aircraft requiring fuel flies alongside the basket and connects to it via a refueling probe. It is quite common for probe-and-drogue tankers to be outfitted with two hoses, one on each wing, for simultaneous refueling.

The "boom" method employs a rigid extending tube, controlled by the "boom operator." In current USAF tankers, the "boomer" is stationed at the rear of the aircraft, controlling the refuelling process through a small window. The boomer can manipulate the boom with a joystick, moving it up, down, left and right with the aid of small, wing-like surfaces. An aircraft taking on gas will fly up to the boom, whereupon the boomer will "fly" the boom into the receiver’s built-in receptacle.

Red Flag 12-4 saw both of these systems employed, as US fighters received gas through the booms of their KC-135s and the Colombian Air Force used its probe-and-drogue configured KC-137 and KC-767 aircraft to refuel its IAI Kfir fighter jets. However, the USAF used boom-equipped tankers because its fighters had receptacles, not because its tankers aren’t adaptable. The KC-135 can be outfitted with Multiple Point Refuelling System wingtip pods, enabling it to give fuel to aircraft utilizing either fueling system, while the KC-10 has a built-in hose position adjacent to the boom.

The Mission

Mission preparation and planning is a lengthy process which requires the blending of multiple resources to complete successfully even a single sortie. War, however, is unpredictable, and set plans can change quickly even in the simulated environment. On this issue, Capt. Leininger remarked, "There are a lot of ‘fog of war’-type issues that happen, between everyone being new to Red Flag this first week and just day-to-day miscommunication, and it accurately simulates how it is down range in the AOR".

When it comes to fuel planning in the extreme heat of summer in the Nevada desert, Capt Leininger stated, "We typically start out with whatever receivers we’re slated for. With the fuel loads here and how hot it is, they’re maxing us out and we don’t have any extra room so we’re short on fuel. You’re always limited in one way or another. When we do mission planning we account for the time, altitude aloft and the offload capabilities. We try to maximize our fuel load to hit all the receivers and whoever is the highest priority who needs the gas".

The length of time a tanker crew can expect to remain airborne depends on a few factors. Time of year is again one of them. In the summer, the aircraft has to take off with a lighter fuel load than in the winter, so its time aloft, and also how many aircraft it can refuel, are reduced. The number of aircraft to be refueled and their distance apart are also factors. "If [receivers] are spaced close, we get into the theater, offload everything and go home. If [they are not], we are what’s called a ‘Liability Tanker,’ and it becomes a longer mission."

The KC-135, apart from its refueling mission, can be used to transport cargo and also as a medevac aircraft, transferring sick and wounded patients.

The Future

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

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