That refueling style seems difficult to pull off. The old basket style makes more sense to me but what do I know about these things.
The old basket style?
Is that where some airman climbed down the drogue and filled the planes bucket by bucket?
USAF has been doing boom refueling since the 1960s. Nothing new about it, and it's more controllable than the probe and drogue method.
“That refueling style seems difficult to pull off. The old basket style makes more sense to me...” [Vision, post 23]
The probe-and-drogue system (flexible hose, basket on end, probe from receiver goes into it) was invented by the British. American aeronautical engineers developed it further, but were unable to increase the fuel-flow rate sufficiently to meet requirements for bombers.
In the late 1940s, Boeing designers and engineers invented the flying-boom system in the image in Post 6: fuel flow rate is much higher.
Probe-and-drogue aerial refueling systems were retained by USN and the special ops: works easier with helicopters.
Air Force KC-135s can have drogue/hose kits attached to their flying boom when required. The KC-10 has both flying-boom and probe/drogue systems installed.
Achieving and maintaining contact between tanker & receiver is not terribly difficult for trained receiver pilots. B-52s, B-1s, B-2s, RC-135s, C-17s, and other large receiver aircraft do it on training sorties every day.
It’s even easier for the pilots of smaller, more-maneuverable aircraft like fighters. Don’t let the fighter pilots tell you how difficult that part of their job is.