Military News, News From Iraq & Afghanistan - Military Times

In new tactic, tankers move closer to the fight

In the dark of night and light of day, miles above Iraq and Afghanistan, Air Force tankers are refueling a growing number of combat missions.

The tankers, in a major change of tactics, are now moving closer to the fight, said Lt. Col Todd Dixon, a tanker pilot who oversees the refuelers’ scheduling for Air Forces Central’s Combined Air Operations Center.

In the past, tankers set up refueling orbits, and the fighters and bombers came to them.

But with the tankers facing minimal anti-aircraft missile threat, and fighters and bombers needing to remain on station, tankers are more frequently bringing fuel to the attack planes.

“It happens now more often than when I got here,” said Dixon, who is nearing the end of a yearlong deployment to the CAOC.

The change in tactics requires more coordination to make sure the tankers don’t intrude on other military operations and commercial air lanes, Dixon said.

Three Air Force expeditionary squadrons handle the refueling missions, flying sorties from bases in the Persian Gulf region and Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan, not only for Air Force fighters but for Navy and Marine jets as well.

The Navy and Marines Corps do not have their own large jet tankers, so about one-third of the tankers’ fuel goes to their fighters, Dixon said.

Most days, tankers fly from 50 to 55 sorties and pump out 3 million or more pounds of fuel to around 250 aircraft, Air Force statistics show.

The workhorse of the refueling fleet, the KC-135 Stratotanker, flies about 75 percent of the missions and KC-10 Extenders fly the rest, according to Air Mobility Command figures. Some foreign militaries, such as the French, also fly tanker missions to support their Afghanistan operations.

Fighters are the tankers’ primary customers. Jets such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-15E Strike Eagle and A-10 Thunderbolt need to refuel about every 90 minutes, while large aircraft like the B-1B Lancer can linger for several hours before needing gas.

Transports such as the C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster typically are refueled on the ground, not in the air, Dixon said.

During the summer, taking off from runways where the temperatures can exceed 100 degrees means taking off with less fuel, shortening sorties by about two hours. A typical refueling sortie lasts about eight hours for KC-10s and six hours for KC-135s, Dixon said. Cooler temperatures allow the planes to carry more fuel.

The long sorties and frequent flights mean aircrews pile up dozens of hours every week. Air Force medical flight restrictions limit pilots to logging 150 hours a month, a ceiling many airmen reach, Dixon said.

A typical deployment for active-duty crew members runs about two months; however, many crews will make at least two deployments annually, making tanker aircrews among the most-deployed aviators.