The U.S. Air Force’s Next Tanker Must Be Small, Stealthy And Robotic

[rangerrebew]

Editors' Pick|Sep 16, 2021,08:00am EDT
The U.S. Air Force’s Next Tanker Must Be Small, Stealthy And Robotic
David Axe
 
The U.S. Air Force has a tanker problem. Just one thing can solve it.

A drone. A small, stealthy drone.

It’s increasingly clear service leaders understand this. But they’re in no rush to do anything about it.

The problem is obvious. In the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. military flies most of its warplanes from just a handful of big bases. And those bases—namely, Kadena in Okinawa and Andersen in Guam—are many hundreds, or even thousands, of miles from likely combat zones over the China and Philippine seas.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/09/16/the-us-air-forces-next-tanker-must-be-small-stealthy-and-robotic/?sh=13f70b1cd4e4

[rangerrebew]

Just like all those KC-46 tankers that have never worked?

[EdinVA]

I vaguely remember there being US Military based in a place called Korea and Japan also.... /s
This sounds like another DOD money pit....

[sneakypete]

Reading the headline made my head hurt. Do ANY of these people understand refueling requires you to have fuel?

[EdinVA]

Reading the headline made my head hurt. Do ANY of these people understand refueling requires you to have fuel?

@sneakypete
Catch up pete.... it is identity fuel, all they have to do is identify as lots a fuel.

[sneakypete]

@sneakypete
Catch up pete.... it is identity fuel, all they have to do is identify as lots a fuel.

@EdinVA

Phew! That's a load off my mind! I was worried there for a few mintues this was just some USAF General getting ready to retire had earned himself a corporate board seat by coming up with this brain fart,and signing the contract.

But we all know that something like that would never happen,right?

[PeteS in CA]

"Tanker" and "Small" are kind of mutually exclusive. IIRC, the USN has a drone tanker in or just about to come into service, but I doubt that it's small.

[rangerrebew]

The idea is to limit the fuel of other aircraft so that some white conservative with white rage can't go rogue and fly to Bejing from Mejifornia with just one extra load of fuel and nuke it.  I guess, though, they'll have to have swarms of them flying around to keep squadrons and B-52s airborne.  Especially B-52s.  How many will it take to feed one?  The "tankers" will have to line up to refuel one.