I hate to argue with you Beags so I put forward a few points that could have allowed the FSTA to have at least the fittings for a probe, with occasional trips for instructor currency, even if the probe itself was normally kept on the shelf. History is not bunk and yes the Victor 2 was never going to receive at night but it sure did. The Tristar was not doing much tanking when they removed the probes (some say it kept them awake) and then it did not come into the thinking of the ex-Tristar staff at MOD at the time of the contract offer. Also at that time the thought was of 23 FSTA airframes, now down to 13 and only a few of those available on a day to day basis, a handful as you say. I would argue that a max onload for an A300 would be closer to 45 minutes but, in practice, average onloads would be significantly less. Surely todays pilots can cope with that (after all we did). I agree the FSTA has no need of boom facilities but whose to know what long range tasking will arrive in the future where tanker-tanker will prove invaluable.