Air Force leaders hail recent strike missions like Midnight Hammer as a shining example of operational readiness, but that success also highlights the challenges ahead should USAF need to mount an extended long-range strike campaign.
air refueling
Moving 10 tankers to refuel six C-17s en route to a paratrooper drop in Australia took nearly 24 hours of work by a team of planners at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.
The KC-Z4, a blended wing body tanker concept being developed by startup JetZero, could fuel larger groups of aircraft at longer range to hold more targets at risk, company officials say.
A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter and a KC-46 Pegasus tanker were involved in an aerial refueling incident off the coast of the Netherlands on June 27, service officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
After years of fits and starts, the KC-46's Wing Aerial Refueling Pods started operational testing last month out of McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., giving the Pegasus the ability to refuel two aircraft at the same time. McConnell is the first operational base to get the ...
On the 100th anniversary of the first aerial refueling mission, the Air Force sought to highlight the behind-the-scenes efforts of some of its most essential planes with Operation Centennial Contact. More than 150 tankers from 26 installations were involved in large-scale flyovers across the country.