It is almost impossible now to imagine modern air operations without the support of airborne tankers providing vital fuel to almost every type of military aircraft. Air Power Association President, Air Marshal (Ret’d) Greg Bagwell CB, CBE examines the key role played by aerial refuelling in today’s coalition-focused environment.
Column Commander’s Update Briefing
On any given day, the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command passes a daily fuel offload equivalent in volume to 30 seconds of water flowing over Niagara Falls. Currently, in terms of fixed-wing military aviation, only unmanned aircraft aren’t routinely refuelled in mid-air, but trials for drones are beginning in earnest, and there’s growing potential for unmanned tankers, too. Even tankers can receive fuel from other tankers, and today’s air operations are increasingly shaped, constrained and enabled by the refuelling resources at hand. Indeed, one of the first outputs that emerges at the beginning of an air campaign is the tanker plan – these ‘flying gas stations’ are, quite simply, the lifeblood of modern air operations.
Air refuelling has obvious benefits. The first, and the reason it was first invented, was simply to extend the range of air…
