I would warrant it's a lot less than that of an F4 and we tanked them behind Albert.

We had no trouble with the Nimrod behind the C130. It may not have been ideal, but it was OK.

YS

IIRC only the 60 or so KC10s have a centreline hose. The boom on the KC135, and I assume any other boom tanker, can be fitted with a Boom Drogue Adapter. But if you are using a USAF tanker why not use the boom directly. The KC130 tankers have probe and drogue wing pods, so it would be a tad interesting refuelling a P8 from them.

Without searching for and reading the full article, I'm assuming there's more after that sentence. Otherwise I'd have to ask the author whether they think the role of the RAF AAR fleet is to only support other nations' aircraft.

That said, and I might well be imagining this, but I'm sure I once saw a video somewhere of a boom equipped aircraft that had been modified with a drogue element at the end of the boom for probe/drogue ops. Would that be a potential solution? We've spent so much on these damned Voyagers that we may as well spend a little more if it means we actually get the full capability from all our fleets.

You may likely be remembering a KC-135 with the boom drouge adaptor mentioned in the post before yours. This was basically bolting a drouge to the end of the boom allowing the tanker to pass fuel to probe equipped aircraft. Used quite a bit in the first gulf war when many US Navy and coalition probe equipped aircraft needed tankers. The boom could not be used as boom as we know it on the same mission, so not really a "solution". If you wanted to return to boom operations, you would have to land and remove the drouge.

Nicknamed the iron maiden, as the steel basket at the end of the hose was less forgiving than typical drougues.

It would be very beneficial to see the alternative receiver-type modification on Voyager. It "future proofs" the fleet and gives it utility with quite a lot of other countries that we might expect to assist. The problem is, in this climate, we can't afford to future proof anything really - it has to be needed now or very soon, with a robust BC to support it, or it gets no funding.

If we were to decide to buy a boom-type aircraft, I'm sure the mod would happen as a consequence. Who knows.

The A330 MRTT can be equipped with Boom, Wing Pods, Centreline hose and UARRSI all at the same time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EADS/N..._Grumman_KC-45

Indeed, D-IFF_ident, that should have been the standard fit for all A330 tankers....

Just had a Grizzly and a Fat Albert overfly Peterborough in a AAR type of formation.
The Albert was tucked in tight just behind the Grizzly.

What's a "Grizzly"? Surely you had an Albert tucked in behind an Atlas?? ;)

Ok an Atlas.
Looked like they were AAR, but they weren't.

Uffington - lots of pics of the Herc and Atlas here:

https://twitter.com/Seb_Lanc99

What's a "Grizzly"?

That was a close one since, inevitably, in service it would have been dubbed the "Grisly".
Better the " At las(t)".

The A400 was using a Grizzly callsign yesterday.


Edit - So was the C-130J! Doh!

Grizzly. Unofficial name for the A400. Same as Fat Albert/Albert for the Hercules.
Last time I saw a Grizzly over my house, Tom Cruise was strapped onto the outside!

[QUOTE=uffington sb;9371864]Grizzly. Unofficial name for the A400. Same as Fat Albert/Albert for the Hercules.
Last time I saw a Grizzly over my house, Tom Cruise was strapped onto the outside![/QUOTE

...........so we have a tanker that can't receive fuel, at least I see neither probe or a slipway on the RAF Voyagers. Seem to remember we had them, probes , on the Valiant, Victors, TriStars and VC10 tankers !

At least the Australians have got their act together ! Perhaps their interpretation of PFI is in the mark !

Ref earlier post. Whilst I cannot speak for AirTanker, TTSC never offered even the prospect of a buddy buddy capability. It certainly wasn't on the MOD wish list. In any case contrary to opposition claims, the 767 had more than enough fuel internally to deal with all the requirements scenarios.

And another thing, anyone remember the dick-dance with the Tristar probes?

How many times can you recall the TriStar probe being used in anger? I'd say "ZERO"!

The Kiwis refuelled a Tristar with an A4, I think. :)

Also this
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_2...%20Tristar.jpg