purple prose
Just a journo letting the pen run wild. Stripped of the purple prose it simply means that the UK consortium that won the tanker/transport contract will provide a certain number of A330-200 aircraft for full-time service and have others available within a specified call-up period. These latter aircraft have to earn their keep. The A330-200 can take a maximum uplift of 110 tonnes in the wing and have no need of extra in-cabin tanks. So yup, if the aircraft is in a plain unassuming livery you would not know it was a "tanker". One lucky stroke for Airbus is that the wing is hardened to be virtually the same for both A330 and A340 variants and I think, but don't quote me, that this simplifies fitting wing mounted refuelling drogues. Aircraft that conform to the USAF pattern expect flying boom refuelling; RAF/RN/USN aircraft broadly speaking expect hose and drogue either three point with a central hose drum or two point wing only. Thus the revenue earners will be two-pointers with the wing drogue units stored in a lock-up garage near Vauxhall Bridge between the motor bike garage and the kebab shop. If you prise the doors apart slightly you'll also see the entire inventory of RAF Strike Command on wooden blocks. Okay, I lied about the last bit, the lock-up is next door to Waterloo.