Air Mobility Plan, 2008 - The Black Vault

Air Refueling Roadmap
Air Refueling Roadmap
OPR: Air Refueling Functional Capabilities Team
MAF Capability
Provide the capability to simultaneously refuel multiple United States, allied, or coalition (including
rotary wing and unmanned) aircraft during day/night, in adverse weather, with probe/drogue and
boom on the same sortie, across the range of military operations.
Assessment
Air refueling is an important part of
air mobility and serves to enable and
multiply the effects of airpower at all
levels of warfare. The Mobility Air
Forces’ air refueling (AR) capability
makes possible the intertheater air bridge
operations needed to support large
deployments, humanitarian assistance,
global strike, or the long-range airdrops
of paratroopers and their equipment
without reliance upon intermediate
or in-theater staging bases. Air refueling provides the
nuclear-equipped bomber force with the ability to deliver
its payload to any location in the world and recover to a
suitable reconstitution base. Combat operations require
air refueling to extend the persistence and endurance
as well as range of all aircraft. The USMC (KC-130),
AFSOC (MC-130E/P/H/W), and ACC (Rescue
C-130P) have C-130 tanker aircraft that conduct
refueling operations for rotary-wing aircraft. The air
refueling force is comprised of active duty, Air Force Reserve Command, and Air National Guard
units that support combatant commanders across the globe. They operate KC-135, KC-10, and
HC/MC-130 aircraft and are a self-deployable force capable of performing a number of secondary
missions to include cargo and passenger airlift, aeromedical evacuation, and the airborne relay for
command and control (C2) information. AMC is working with Air Combat Command to develop the
capability to refuel future unmanned aircraft.
The MAF operates the world’s best air refueling fleet, but continuous combat operations since 1990
have stressed the aircraft and the people who fly and maintain them. Existing capability shortfalls
create additional challenges to meet the increasing requirements of the National Defense Strategy. It
is clear that our air refueling aircraft are aging and that it is necessary to recapitalize the fleet.
(b)(5)
The MAF has several initiatives under way to improve refueling capabilities. The 827 Aircraft
Sustainment Group (ACSG) implemented an improvement plan to reduce the number of depotpossessed
aircraft. While this initiative has been helpful in providing more aircraft available for
daily missions, it does not fully overcome the current tanker shortfall. The KC-135 Global Air
Traffic Management (GATM) program improves the aircraft’s operational readiness and gives it
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FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (FOUO)
OCT 07