Originally Posted by
Lonewolf_50
A tanker would go up full of gas. Strike aircraft would come and go, each topping off, or not, as the mission warranted.
Eventually, the tanker's relief would show up to be the "Tanker On Station" for the next 6- 8 hours or so. The "about to leave as on station tanker" would Top Them Up with their spare gas before checking off station. The point of doing this is to OPTIMIZE the amount of gas that the on-coming tanker had in his tanks to offer to the Tactical Aircraft who were going to be showing up while that tanker was orbiting around at Max Loiter, waiting to feed gas to those who need it.
That is why tankers fill up other tankers: to better take care of the Fighters and Attack aircraft who will need gas during their shift. Support the war fighter.
Savvy?
Repeating a previous post, but one of the mandatory requirements for the KC-46 was the ability to receive fuel as well as dispense it. It was a far from trivial change to the aircraft configuration - so not cheap - but the USAF obviously saw value in the ability.
As to why it wasn't retrofit to the majority of the KC-135 fleet, given what adding that capability 'during built' to the KC-46 entailed, I'm sure it would have cost a fortune to retrofit that capability to an existing airframe.
Question - did this apparent mid-air happen at night or during daylight?