Posted on 12/31/2021 2:22:38 AM PST by EBH
With a range of 11,830 km and the capacity to carry 207,000 pounds of fuel, the KC-46 can refuel over 64 different types of aircraft and allow dozens of jets to remain airborne for up to 12 hours
Israel’s Defense Ministry has signed an agreement with the US government to acquire 12 Lockheed Martin CH-53K helicopters and two additional Boeing KC-46 refueling aircraft.
The US Defense Department’s Procurement Delegation signed the letters of acceptance (LOAs) with Israel on Thursday evening to replace the Israel Air Force’s CH-53 Yasur heavy-lift helicopters and Ra’am (Boeing 707) tanker aircraft that are required for long-range missions.
"These procurement agreements are significant milestones in the IDF’s force buildup processes,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz. “We continue to strengthen our capabilities and to change and adapt our Air Force to face future challenges both near and far.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...
REFUELING aircraft. Guess what they have in mind.
As the rock song goes, bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran.
Those Boing 707s seem to be very reliable airplanes.
Yep. M waiting for some retired B1 bombers to make it to their inventory.
They could have bought some lightly used ones from Afghanistan.
The only tankers currently in our inventory (Air Force) are the KC-135R model and the new KC-46. The 135’s aren’t being produced anymore, just maintained. The 46 is a newer model meant as only a bridge until a better tanker can be designed and built. Be interesting to see what they get.
I should also mention that the KC-46 that have been delivered so far are so full of problems that almost no one trusts them to do what they’re supposed to do. I mean, when you get planes delivered with production tools somehow lost within the wall of the plane, that’s pretty bad. Plus the video feed for the boom operators was not designed well. It doesn’t account for sunlight as certain times of the day, or from different angles, and the latency between the cameras and the boom operators themselves is bad.
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