Free Republic

Something was off with a key component used to literally hold many U.S. Air Force aircraft together—and it resulted in the service grounding 207 vital aircraft according to a Time Compliance Technical Order issues in February. No—it’s wasn’t the Air Force’s numerous F-16 tactical fighters. Nor its new F-35 stealth jets, or venerable B-52 bombers and A-10 ground attack jets. Foremost, it was the workhorse keeping all of those planes refueled in the sky: the service’s airliner-based KC-135 Stratotanker. It also affected RC-135 and WC-135 surveillance aircraft extensively deployed to monitor the activity and technologies of foreign militaries (particularly China,...

The movie "Thirteen Days" is the latest dramatization of President Kennedy's showdown with the Soviets during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Retired Air Force Maj. Gottlieb "John" Wilmsmeyer, 71, hasn't seen the film. But the Missouri farmer figures he can match that Cold War tale with a nail-biter of his own. It occurred about the same time. It might even have influenced the missile crisis. But for nearly 40 years, Wilmsmeyer had to keep quiet about "Operation Speedlight Delta." He was crew commander on a KC-135 tanker at Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kan., in the summer of...

Pilots with the Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing fly the unit’s first KC-135 aircraft converted with the newest digital avionics cockpit instruments. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air National Guard A Boeing KC-135 with Rockwell Collins-upgraded avionics has been delivered to The Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City, the guard said. The aircraft received a Block 45 upgrade, and now has the “newest” digital avionics cockpit instruments. “The jet that we are bringing home was built in 1958 and most of the instrumentation is original to the aircraft,” said Lt. Col. Shawn...

When the first Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker took to the sky on August 31,1956, no one at the time could have expected it would still be flying 60 years later. But for the past six decades, this modified Boeing 707 has established itself as one of the workhorses of the Air Force’s inventory, providing air-to-air refueling, personnel and cargo transport, and aeromedical evacuation capabilities throughout the world. In the mid-fifties Strategic Air Command, under the direction of General Curtis Lemay, needed an air refueler that could keep up with the fighter and bomber aircraft of the day. At the time, B-52...

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 and French Rafale involved in an mid-air emergency over Mali. Taken from a 100th ARW (Air Refueling Wing) KC-135 Stratotanker during what seemed to be (at least until then) a routine aerial refueling mission in support of Operation Serval, in Mali, the above image shows a French Air Force Rafale jet breaking to the left to separate from the tanker after the tip of IFR (In Flight Refueling) probe was severely damaged. According to the Escadron de chasse 01.091 “Gascogne”, who posted the image, the aircraft, with full load of weapons, was refueling from the...

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 20 (UPI) -- Searchers found flight recorders from a U.S. military plane that crashed in Kyrgyzstan May 3, the Kyrgyz Transport and Communication Ministry said Monday. A ministry spokesman said the recorders were found in debris at the crash site and turned over to U.S. officials for analysis, RIA Novosti reported. The Boeing KC-135 refueling tanker with a three-member crew crashed into a gorge about 36 miles west of Bishkek soon after taking off from the U.S. Transit Center at Bishkek's international airport.

WWASHINGTON—A high-ranking American diplomat delivered an emotional reconstruction Wednesday of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, providing the first detailed public account from an American official who was on the ground in Libya. The testimony from Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 U.S. official in Libya at the time, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also drew new attention to key questions about the attacks, and how the administration handled the aftermath.

The first night refueling in the history of the Lockheed Martin F-35 program was completed Thursday at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Piloted by U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Peter Vitt, AF-4, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant, rendezvoused with an Air Force KC-135 tanker and successfully received fuel through the F-35’s boom receptacle. Vitt’s sortie lasted more than three hours. In addition to qualifying with the KC-135, the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards AFB will also conduct night refueling tests with the KC-10.

VENTURA, Calif. -- An airbase spokesman says a Boeing 707 tanker has crashed on takeoff at Point Mugu Naval Air Station in Ventura County.

A military aircraft crashed at Point Mugu Naval Air Station in Ventura County Wednesday afternoon. A Boeing 707 fuel tanker carrying 158,000 pounds of jet fuel crashed shortly after take-off around 5:25 p.m. and burst into flames. 3 people were reportedly onboard. All were able to escape with minor injuries, according to Teri Reid, an Air Station spokesperson. 13 emergency units initially responded to the fire. Ventura County Fire Department brought in a water dropping helicopter to battle the blaze. The cause of the accident was under investigation.

The Boeing Company today submitted its final proposal for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-X tanker competition. The proposal offers a fleet of Boeing NewGen Tankers -- 767-based, multi-mission aircraft that deliver superior capabilities to U.S. warfighters and burn 24 percent less fuel than the competing European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Company’s tanker. If selected, the Boeing tanker will save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars in fuel costs over the next 40 years and support 50,000 American jobs with more than 800 suppliers in more than 40 states. “This decision is critical to America’s national security and its manufacturing...

A U.S. Air Force officer told Congress that both Boeing and EADS handled "correctly and professionally" a situation in which each received data from the Air Force about each company's bid to build a fleet of refueling tankers. Major Gen. Wendy Masiello also testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Air Force unintentionally sent Boeing and EADS the rival bids on compact disks. The reason for the hearing was to determine whether EADS is in a better negotiating position after one of its employees briefly viewed a summary of the Air Force's assessment of rival Boeing's bid, according...

Red Flag 11-2 is a large force exercise requiring many units to work together like a well-oiled machine, and if one piece were taken out, the whole operation would grind to a halt. A large and important cog in the Red Flag machine is the combined effort of four KC-135 Stratotanker units. "We're fueling their fight," said Maj. Emily Huhmann, detachment commander. "The war doesn't happen without the tankers -- it would not be worthwhile to put those support assets and the time into the training if we weren't there." The KC-135 aircraft and crewmembers from McGhee-Tyson Air National Guard...

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air National Guard are modifying a KC-135 air refueling aircraft for testing of an infrared anti-missile system. Comprehensive ground testing of the company's Guardian system began Jan. 12. Follow-on flight testing is to begin Wednesday. The company said the Operational Utility Evaluation is scheduled for completion in mid-March. Northrop Grumman's Guardian system incorporates the company's AN/AAQ-24(V) infrared countermeasures defensive aid system in a pod-based configuration. The AN/AAQ-24 is installed on more than 500 fixed- and rotary-wing platforms for the U.S. military and others. It's designed to protect aircraft from advanced man-portable ground-to-air missiles and consists...

The U.S. Air Force recently had to cancel ones of its Red Flag training exercises because there were not enough tankers available. The air force holds 4-5 of these exercises a year, to maintain fighter pilot skills, and sometimes to complete the training of pilots before they go overseas. The training includes aerial refueling. The problem here is that the air force fleet of KC-135 tankers are very old. An unpredictable, and growing, number of them are unavailable because of maintenance problems. Earlier this year, the air force disclosed that, on average, 20 percent of its 415 aging KC-135 tankers...

The last new KC-135 Stratotanker was delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 1964. After nearly a decade of war, the fleet’s age is showing, most profoundly to the men and women on the ground who keep the 415 tankers flying. Two wars, political bickering, shady dealings and Air Force missteps have delayed the development of a new airborne refueling tanker for much of the past decade. In the meantime, airmen are left to keep this Eisenhower-era granddaddy of the fleet mission-ready, an increasingly difficult and expensive task. “How many cars do you see driving from 1956?” asked Staff Sgt....

Demonstrably proud of their bid on the KC-X tanker, EADS NA officials turned it in one day early and the company’s chairman slammed Boeing for “wasting a lot of time trying to derail” the competition “because someone thinks their plane is inferior.” Boeing’s attacks amounted, said company chairman Ralph Crosby, to a lot of “crap.” EADS flew five paper (and one CD) copies of its 8.800-page bid to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on a chartered prop plane, expecting them to arrive at 2:40 p.m. The company filmed the copies being loaded aboard and the takeoff for employees to watch later....

The Air Force’s latest mobility study found the United States could not muster enough tankers to execute two of three likely scenarios, senior service officials told the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee today. One of the principal reasons for that is that the aging tanker fleet needs so much patchwork and loving care that almost 20 percent of the fleet is in a depot at any one time, Brig. Gen. Michelle Johnson testified. “In two of three scenarios we did not have sufficient tankers,” she said. For the big one, two nearly simultaneous large land campaigns, with...

As part of efforts to enhance their military-to-military cooperation, Pakistani and US air force personnel participated in a joint aerial refueling information exchange programme at a Pakistani airbase. US Air Force pilots and aircrew from the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, currently deployed in Kyrgyzstan, arrived at the Chaklala airbase on Wednesday to conduct the information exchange with the Pakistan Air Force. The US invited Pakistani pilots and aircrew aboard their KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft to familiarise them with air refuelling equipment and procedures. Vice Admiral Michael LeFever, senior US Defence Representative to Pakistan, hosted Air Commodore Tahir Ranjha, PAF's Air...

Yesterday, US Air Force and Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition officials informed Congress and members of the press on the revised request for proposal (RfP) for the competition for a new aerial tanker. The officials claim that RfP for the controversial KC-X programme, which is now entering its second attempt of finding a solution for the future of US Air Force air-refuelling, is designed to promote fair, open competition. However, it is still questionable if there will by any competition, as the Northrop Grumman-EADS consortium, having been awarded a contract in 2008 which prompted a protest from rival bidder Boeing,...