SFFP
It's called banter, sorry.
Whippersnapper
I had been under the impression, from what I have been able to find about the company plans on the web, that Airtanker were planning to operate a common fleet of aircraft, but that some would be military registered and other civil registered, with the respective crew operating their split domains. I got the impression, though only through hazy inference, that the civilians would not be conducting AAR, so i can only assume that the civil registered aircraft may have a ghost miltiary registration or that they could be operated under the quoted ANO directive allowing non-JAA licensed HM crews to operate CAA registered aircraft in the interests of the country.
It is my undertanding that ALL FSTA will be dual registered. When doing a military task they will be flown by military crews on the military register.
When they are being flown for a civilian task ie with a partner airline or on a 3PR flight for ATr they will be flown by partner company or ATr crews on the civilian register.
Civilain crews will not be doing AAR, but "sponsored reservist" ATr pilots may as they will need to retain currency - I assume they will need to be "activated" for that task.
Regarding the ANO I understand that one of the reasons the RAF King Air fleet is gaining military registrations is that a number of nations complained about aircraft flying over their territory, on civilian registrations, with military markings and flown by "unlicensed" pilots - contrary to the Chicago Convention (but stand to be corrected on that one).
I also got the impression that the aircraft would be configured to receive as well as deliver fuel, and that there may be a mix of centre line station fits of probe and drogue and flying boom (the latter for the F35, perhaps, but I'd have expected the B and C models to have retractable probes to be used in conjunction with USN carrier-borne F18 with tanker pods.
FSTA is not configured to receive fuel in flight nor will it come with a boom system; some FSTAs (but not all) will come with a centreline hose. More sensible nations, that are buying their KA-330s/KC-30s, are getting them with booms and centreline hoses and the ability to receive fuel from other tankers.