"While tanker movements in this direction are far from abnormal, such a large, near-simultaneous migration of the jets was very peculiar, especially at a time of extreme crisis in the Middle East. The exact reason for the mass deployment is unclear, although many of the potential answers would indicate a change, or preparations for a potential change, in the current conflict between Israel and Iran."
Israel has limited aerial refueling capacity. We do not. As Gen. Omar Bradley is alleged to have said: ""amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics " Modern warfare is about exhausting rhe other side with materiel, delivered to combatants faster than they can. The series Wsr Factorirs captures well how America as "Thr Arsenal of Democracy" doomed the Axis powers. I am not sure how many fighters each tanker can refuel at a time. but I am sure it is several.
UPDATE: The USAF in Europe website mentions an exercise over Finland which could be where everyone is going.
UPDATE 2: This suggests it is not the NATO exercise:
"President Trump has ordered the National Security Council to convene and remain on standby in the Situation Room."
Israel has limited aerial refueling because they operate close to home. We do not
ReplyDeleteWe do have limited air refueling assets. It’s a higher limit than Israel, but Israel is a regional rather than a global power.
ReplyDeleteWe have never had enough air refueling, airlift, or sea lift to match the time frame of the strategic plans we make. We were still pumped up with Cold War assets when Gulf War 1 came along, and it took months to build up the support and combat forces in theater to thrash the Iraqis.
And it is far worse now. The Navy is in terrible shape, both Army and civil sealift has been dispensed with or allowed to deteriorate. The existing airlifters are in good shape but there are too few. We retired all the KC-10s despite the Boeing KC-46A ongoing fiasco, so the KC-135 soldiers on, but not so many of them any more either.
Even if Trump didn’t have to constantly fight off the commie ankle biters in every federal District Court in the United States, I still don’t think he would have time enough to fix the military to fight a war with China anytime soon.
The US has inadequate big-wing Tanker support, especially considering that the US Navy has to rely on the US Air Force tanker fleet, as well as our allies.
ReplyDeleteIsrael and some of the western NATO nations have on order the Airbus 330 based KC-45/MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport), a sort of KC-10 mini. These are the tankers the US should have had, but Senator McCain got the deal cancelled, because the Airbus wasn't built in the US. Since then we've been trying to get the Boeing 757-based KC-46 working, while they are deployed they are not fully capable. And require the US Air Force basically disassemble them after delivery to clean trash and foreign objects out of them after construction.
But even on civilian tracking systems like Flight Aware, the conga line of two dozen tanker aircraft headed across the Atlantic was...impressive, and a good wakeup call for those with sufficient wit to recognize it.
First, the KC-46 is based on the 767, not the 757.
DeleteSecond, it is certified to refuel all US aircraft, although there is a modification in progress for an issue with the A-10.
The Vision system issue has been solved and modifications are in progress. It was basically hard to see if you were oriented to have the sun shining directly into the cameras.
And FOD reduction is an ongoing process, but current planes are orders of magnitude better than some of the early ones.
Israel has ordered four KC-46's and will probably get more. They've already received at least two.