In this article:
The key to mission success
The key to any long-range, long-duration mission is ensuring aircraft, both US and NATO, have the proper amount of fuel throughout the flight.
Aerial refueling is critical to the success of these missions: in fact air refueling allows increased speed, range, flexibility and lethality for combat aircraft.
Adam Daymude, former US Navy EA-6B Prowler and EA-18G Growler pilot, talks on Quora about the Navy perspective of the aerial refueling;
‘This setup is one that can be found, especially around the boat where we tank off of Navy aircraft: a pod extends a hose with a drogue at the end for us to plug into.
‘This is our dream way to refuel if we could do it all the time! After you get the refueling probe nestled in the drogue, that flexible hose reduces your workload somewhat because you don’t have to be super precise. Beware, however!! If you start overcorrecting for your altitude, you’ll introduce a sine wave in the hose that will come flying back at you and rip your probe from your aircraft. The refueling aircraft gets to keep your part as a trophy.
The Iron Maiden
‘Unfortunately, in combat, we rarely got so lucky. See, KC-135’s are plentiful and are by far the most common aircraft I aerial refueled off. Problem, though. They didn’t have many pods but they do have a contraption they can stick on the end of the boom to allow drogue refueling aircraft, like all Navy aircraft, to tank off them. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to the Iron Maiden:
‘That GD contraption has ripped off more probes than is reasonably countable! That hose is 6’ long and you have to drive the drogue forward enough that you introduce that curve in it so fuel starts to flow. See at the end of the boom, aft of the wing looking things? The hard end of that is called the knuckle. No exaggeration, you are flying with the knuckle a couple of feet from your canopy.
Air refueling from a KC-135
‘With that boom and short hose, the drogue is pretty stable and easy to engage. The problem comes when you’ve pushed it forward and have to hold that knuckle exactly where it is for 10–15 minutes. It. Is. Exhausting. Sometimes you get really lucky and have a newbie in the KC-135 controlling the boom trying to “help” you. They’re used to steering that boom around for USAF jets and try to do the same for us…while we’re making constant corrections with the stick and throttle. Stop, dude! I’m f’ing trying to fly this thing! I’ve had to back out of the drogue before to “gently” tell the boom operator to knock it off.
‘Anyway, holding the knuckle exactly where it is for that long is really hard…I’d say on the level of a day carrier landing. Remember that hose is only 6’ long. If you lose 6’ 2” of altitude compared to the knuckle, bye bye probe.’
Daymude concludes;
‘There is one advantage to tanking off the Maiden…fuel flow is MUCH faster so you don’t spend as much time away from your mission. I tanked off a KC-130 with a pod and drogue and it took forever to get topped off. Not to mention flying near stall speed for the prop job.’
Photo credit: Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan / U.S. Air Force and DCS
